Sharp focus

Issue 20 | Spring/Summer 2007

Report: Tim Mitchell
Photography: Melissa Di Ciero

Centre Director Associate Professor Joanne Etheridge

It is one of the most sensitive machines ever invented by mankind, capable of 'hearing' wind blowing in the trees and the passing of a train several kilometres away. Little surprise then, that when it came to designing and building a home for a new electron microscope, one of only four of its kind in the world, Monash scientists have gone to elaborate lengths to ensure image clarity.

At first glance it seems a modest, non-descript building that has been under construction at Monash University's Clayton campus for the past 18 months.

But as is often the case, looks are deceiving. The new Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy building is a case study in ingenuity and meticulous planning all driven by a single purpose; to create the most stable building in Australia.

Within months it will house a double aberration corrected field emission gun transmission electron microscope, with a magnification strength of ten million times. Aberration correction is like fitting a microscope with glasses, allowing it to 'see' features that were previously too small to be seen.

This microscope can see individual atomic columns separated by less than one tenth of a nanometre. This is analogous to be able to read this article from the moon.

An object's atomic structure determines many of its physical properties, such as colour, strength and conductivity. Being able to see the arrangement can be the key to understanding why it has particular properties.

But just as using the zoom lens on the family camera increases the chances of blurry images, the clarity of an image taken with such a powerful electron microscope is subject to the most subtle of interferences.

The wind blowing in nearby trees, cars driving by, the slightest change in temperature generated when a person enters a room and the presence of metal water pipes buried in the ground can all create mechanical, acoustic, thermal and electro-magnetic interference.

By the time the microscope arrives from Europe, everything possible that can be done to insulate its operating environment will have been done.

The construction method means there are effectively nine free standing buildings situated within a larger building, each with its own brick walls, roof, and chilled ceiling panels for still and silent air conditioning.

Each of these nine buildings will house a microscope of varying strength, which will sit on its own isolated concrete slab up to a metre thick. Six nearby electrical sub stations have been rewired, the construction materials of glass and wood have been specially chosen to prevent the smallest of electrical current being picked up from the ground.

Planning and construction has been a long detailed process for Centre Director Associate Professor Joanne Etheridge and her colleagues. Now she and her team of experts gathered across the world from places like Oxford, Cornell and Cambridge will soon focus on using the new instruments.

She thinks Monash is a special place to be. "We have a very exciting and rare combination of an ultra-stable building, some special instruments and a team of outstanding staff," Associate Professor Etheridge said.

"This new facility can play a significant role in solving a range of problems in science and engineering, such as developing better polymers, lighter stronger alloys, more efficient solar cells and faster computer chips, so the impact on science and the community can be broad."

The centre's new building will be officially opened next year.

For more information, please visit the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy website.