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Cold Stages
You must be trained on proper handling of the cold stages before unattended use is permitted.
Gatan
- This holder easily can obtain 1nm resolution
Oxford (Dual Tilit High Resolution Holder)
- This holder is not necessary if area of interest is greater than 6 Angstroms
- When filling dewar with liquid nitrogen make sure the top plate does not get frozen
Gatan Dry pumping station
- Insert specimen rod into the pumping station
- Open "V1" and "V2"
- Make sure the screw valve on tee is closed
- Turn on pump
Warm up
A warm-up cycle should be run with the "Gatan Cold Stage Control" After every use.
- Invert the dewar during warm up to facilitate expulsion of condensation
- Pump on the specimen rod only during warm-up.
- Attach the plug on the back of the "Gatan Cold Stage Control" to the dewar
- Turn on "Gatan Cold Stage Control"
- Turn knob until "Start Warm-up Cycle" is selected
- Press any one of the three buttons to select
- Press far left button to begin
- This cycle will take around 30 min. You must wait for the cycle to finish before pumping on the dewar. This prevents contamination on the Zeolite in the dewar; one of the causes of instability.
Room Temperature
Once the frost is evacuated form the specimen rod and the vacuum reads in the 10neg4 range
- Close the "V1" valve
- Return dewar to the upright position
- Connect tygon hose from tee to dewar
- Unscrew valve at end of tee
- Allow the tygon tube to evacuate for a minute before opeing dewar
- This is to prevent contamination of the dewar's zeolite
- Unscrew the vavle on the dewar
- leave the stage pumping overnight
-- KdDerr - 30 Oct 2007
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