New project funded

New Developments in Quantitative 3D Chemical Imaging

A major new EPSRC grant of £844k will allow us to explore further the 3D imaging SIMS capabilities of reactive cluster projectile using a new high-energy ion beam.  Project partners include Prof Ian Gilmore at the National Physical Laboratory and Prof Arnaud Delcorte at the Universite catholique de Louvain.

The funding, togther with investment from the Henry Royce Institute allows us to replace our prototype Ionoptika J105 SIMS with the latest model, including a 70 keV water cluster beam.  This comes 10 y after the installation of the first J105 instrument in Manchester.

Visitor from University of Karachi

This month we welcome Dr. Syed Ghulam Musharraf, Associate Professor from H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry and International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at the University of Karachi, Pakistan (http://www.iccs.edu).  Musharraf will discuss collaborative opportunities between his institution and the University of Manchester and share his own research interests with our group and others in the MIB.  His visit is funded through a Charles Wallace Visiting Fellowship.

Visit to Hyogo University

Nick visited the groups of Drs Moritani and Toyoda at the University of Hyogo, Himeji, Japan, who work extensively with gas cluster ion beams (GCIBs) for materials processing and analysis.  He gave a presentation on our ion yield enhancements with the water GCIB source.

Visit to Osaka University

Nick visited the groups of Prof Terada and colleagues at Osaka University, who are developing high resolution ToF mass analyzers and applying them in SIMS, SNMS, MALDI and FAB.  He gave a presentation on our instrumentation and methodology development and discussed laser SNMS theory – he also had the opportunity to view some moon samples returned by the Apollo 15 and 17 missions.