Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Real colour cathodoluminescence in scanning electron microscopes (ChromaSEM-CL) is a new advancement in high resolution imaging technology that is a fundamental breakthrough (since 2004), since spectral colour preservation reveals fundamental information about the internal structures of certain minerals, that otherwise have low luminescence. This new technology will significantly enhance our capabilities in the UNB "Microscopy and Microanalytical Facility" www.unb.ca/fredericton/science/emunit/ as well as with the "Institute of Material Visualization and Analysis" http://www.unbf.ca/materials/ The addition of ChromaSEM-CL will enable quartz-bearing materials especially to be examined at extremely high resolution, which support a wide variety of disciplines in Materials research, including the principle applicant's interest in Mineral and Energy Resources research. Follow up research on otherwise cryptic detailed microtextural and defect features that relate to low level elemental substitutions in quartz defect can now be studied, which enables complex textural and compositional variations to be related to ore deposit- and hydrocarbon-forming environments in NB and elsewhere around the world. http://www.gatan.com/sem/chromacl.html