Crisp NanoCharacterization Facility

Center for Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP)
For more information on CRISP, please click here.

Inverted Light Microscope
This top-of-the-line research-grade microscope uses reflected photons (plain old light!) to image the surface of even large, bulky objects to the micron level, 1x10-6 meters or 0.000001 meter, the size of some bacteria... (Okay, that's pretty small.)

Scanning Electron Microscope
The SCSU Materials Science Research Group will demonstrate how this computer-interfaced microscope uses scattered electrons (smaller than light waves) to display objects that are near and below the micron scale. (Even smaller?)

Transmission Electron Microscope
Here is a microscope that uses transmitted electrons to display objects on the nanometer level (1x10-9 meters or 0.000000001 meter, a few times the size of an atom... (Whoa, that's a LOT smaller!)

Atomic Force Microscope
And how about a microscope that uses an atomically fine probe (kind of like the needle on an old-fashioned record player)  to "feel" and produce computer images of objects at the atomic scale (1x10-10 meters or 0.0000000001 meter, the size of individual atoms). WOW! Do things get any smaller than that!? (Well, as a matter of fact... Yes!)