Capability Features
EMSL develops research tools that transcend current capabilities—allowing the global scientific community to accelerate solutions to major challenges. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and other investments, EMSL has significantly expanded its capabilities, allowing EMSL scientists and the EMSL user community to collaborate on new results. The feature stories here highlight new capabilities as they come online, reveal their first results, and provide potential users with insights on how they can be used for greatest scientific impact. In addition, feature stories on past successes offer a model for future capability integrations that support new discoveries and innovations.
Microscopic imaging provides new insights
As anyone who has watched high-definition TV or seen a 3-D movie knows, the conventional 2-D view just doesn't compare. The same higher resolution and detailed images that make for great viewing are also essential for scientists seeking atomic-level information about the structure and behavior of catalysts. Being able to view nanoparticles and their spatial distribution in 3-D provides a greater depth of information for clearer scientific understanding than could be obtained from a 2-D image. Full story
A Perfect Storm
EMSL is preparing to open a new Radiochemistry Annex to facilitate DOE mission science related to understanding environmental contaminants in the subsurface. Users will now be able to collaborate with EMSL scientists using state-of-the-art molecular science tools to analyze radiological samples in support of improved remediation strategies.Full story
A Catalyst for High-Impact Science
A multi-institutional team of scientists is using EMSL's new Recovery Act-funded capabilities to achieve new insights into catalytic reactions on the surfaces of advanced metal oxide-based materials. The work is part of an inaugural EMSL Research Campaign that brings together world-leading capabilities and expertise in support of more efficient, less costly catalysts—a need with cross-cutting energy and industrial applications. Read the full story. Full story
The Moment
Two EMSL scientists working on separate capability development projects each recently experienced The Moment—the major breakthrough they had been waiting for. While they may not have shouted "Eureka," their reactions show the importance of these first results to their respective scientific fields: imaging mass spectrometry and surface nonlinear spectroscopy.Full story
Micro Machine Shop
Unlike other stand-alone equipment in EMSL's laboratories, the microfabrication capability encompasses multiple instruments and will be used to build the smallest devices sometimes having features less than 1 micron (up to 100 times smaller than a human hair). Full story
EMSL's Fluorescence Microscopy System
EMSL's multi-photon confocal microscope, which is fast becoming integral in propelling in vivo, or whole-organism, research forward, uses a near-infrared laser for nonlinear excitation, resulting in deep-tissue penetration with minimal living-tissue damage and achieving three-dimensional image representation.Full story
EMSL preps new helium ion microscope for its close-up
EMSL became the first national user facility to add a helium ion microscope (HIM) to its microscopy capability suite. The HIM promises to advance biogeochemical, biological and interfacial sciences through high-resolution (0.35 nm) imaging and chemical analysis with a sub-nanometer He+ ion probe. Full story
A LEAP Forward
EMSL scientists recently brought online the LEAP® 4000 XHR local electrode atom probe that will enable the first-ever comprehensive and accurate 3-D chemical imaging studies of low electrical conductivity materials. Full story
