Microscopy & MicroAnalysis
This page is intended to showcase some of my favorite microscope images and chemical analyses.
Scanning Electron Microscopy
These are some recently acquired images of crystals that I grew in the experimental lab. See if you can figure out which ones are pseudohexagonal forsterite (hint: they look like snowflakes!) and which ones are halite, NaCl, speleothems. Each of these experiments mimicked the growth conditions found in natural rocks.
Electron Backscatter Diffraction
These are some crystal orientation maps acquired as part of a recently-submitted publication. The first map is a phase map, the second shows quartz orientations (though you'll just have to guess what the IPF color key is for the moment, the third shows the average orientation of individual crystals, and the last shows the grain orientation spread (GOS). All maps were made with MTex in matlab. Not shown is all of the statistical orientation and grain size work I did on these regions , which will be showcased in the hopefully imminent publication.
Electron Microprobe MicroAnalysis
Microprobe point analysis and chemical mapping are one of the most common chemical analyses I do. Shown are two Mg maps. The first shows four main phases : calcite, dolomite, forsterite, and serpentine. See if you can figure out which one is which based off of the expected Mg content for each mineral! The second map shows a euhedral garnet with oscillatory zoning and inclusions.
Cathodoluminescence
Many materials are cathodoluminescent - even glass! Depending on the material, cathodoluminescent (CL) images can be acquired either on a scanning electron microscope (SEM) or a cold-stage. The first image shows a cold-stage CL image of the same type of rock as the first microprobe map in the column immediately above this one. The second image shows my favorite SEM-CL quartz image.