For many engineering students, seeing is believing and for those doing their research at Ohio State, that phrase could not be more accurate.
OSU is the first North American site to install and begin using the world’s highest-resolution commercially available microscope.
The two-ton microscope, called the Titan, is capable of magnifying up to 30 million times, which enables those using the microscope to examine materials at the atomic scale. The microscope was manufactured by FEI.
“Things that affect material properties often occur at the atomic scale. This microscope will allow us to get a very accurate physical picture of materials,” Hamish Fraser, director of the Center for Accelerated Maturation of Materials, said in a press release.
Jessica Collins, assistant editor at the center, said that more specifically, the microscope is a transmission electron microscope.
“The FEI Titan S/TEM (scanning transmission electron microscopy) is an extraordinarily powerful and stable system,” Rob Fastenau, senior vice president of FEI’s NanoResearch and NanoBiology, said in a press release.
The microscope will be used in the Center for Accelerated Maturation of Materials, which develops advanced processes and materials that the automotive industry and others use in their products. Currently, researchers in the center are examining two advanced structural materials used in the aerospace industry: titanium alloys used in airframes and jet engines and nickel-based superalloys used in high-temperature applications, such as gas turbine engines.
Fraser said he believes the Titan will have a significant impact on the research the center conducts.
The microscope will allow microscopy to be taken to a new level where discoveries on the structure-property relationships of functional materials can be made, according to a press release.
Cate Buchheit, program coordinator at the center, said the microscope will be used for a multitude of projects. Currently the microscope is located on campus in the electron optics facility.
“We have a campus electron facility where folks within the university and outside the university may use the equipment for a fee,” she said.
She said the mircroscope is primarily here for students and research at the center.
According to Collins, the funding for the $3.3 million system came from a project the center has on the Air Force base. More specifically, the funding came from the Ohio Hayes Investment Fund, the Air Force Research Laboratories, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Ohio Board of Regents Action fund.
Fraser said the microscope has generated interest from students and faculty.
“The demonstrated quality and stability has created excitement among our students and post doctorates,” he said.
