Vision & Mission
- To provide cutting-edge capabilities for the characterization of materials at multiple length scales.
- To enable world class research and foster collaborative partnerships between academia, industry, and government agencies for national needs.
- To facilitate the training and development of a highly skilled workforce equipped with advanced knowledge and expertise in materials characterization.
Overview
The Advanced Facility for Microscopy and Microanalysis (AFMM) combines instruments and capabilities that provide options for characterization of structure and chemistry at various length scales from millimeters down to single atoms in correlative modes enabling researchers to address key problems in the physical sciences and engineering.
Its genesis lay in an initiative by what was then the Department of Metallurgy to bring together a cluster of sophisticated characterisation tools starting with the SIRION scanning electron microscope , an e-beam writer and a focussed-ion-beam (FIB) followed by a transmission electron microscope (TEM), supported by the Department of Science and Technology, CSIR and the Indian Institute of Science itself. These were set up in a new complex under the Institute Nanoscience Initiative (INI). As more instrumentation and operational capability was added with support from IISc , DRDO , CSIR and DST, and DAE, the centre gradually morphed into what is today the Advanced Facility for Microscopy and Microanalysis (AFMM) that includes additional high resolution advanced microscopy techniques such as aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, atom probe tomography, X-ray tomography etc.
The centre is run by a core group of experts drawn from the faculty of various departments and aims to facilitate interaction with the faculty of the Indian Institute of Science in supporting characterisation approaches for their research, training generations of students and researchers in the capability that the centre offers, and offers solutions and collaboration to national R&D laboratories and industry and an international user base.
To do so, the centre continuously upgrades facilities and capability as it evolves, supports staff training in the operation of instrumentation and sample preparation, brings together international expertise in periodic seminars, tutorials and collaboration, offers practical and certification courses on microscopy to the national community. It is guided in its efforts by an advisory and user community within the Indian Institute of Science and an international advisory board.
Activities
- We have established complementary capability in the analysis of the structure and chemistry of materials at the atomic scale through transmission electron microscopy and atom probe techniques.
- We have established correlative microcopy techniques through the implementation of site selective sample preparation techniques. We have established capability for microtexture, chemistry and defect analysis capability at the micron and submicron scale.
- A comprehensive training program enabling hands on use of our sophisticated instruments by our students has been operational for over a decade. A user-friendly instrumental utilization system has been established to provide access to various categories of users.
- We have supported the efforts of our national R&D sectors through supportive programs in in the advanced characterization of structural and semiconductor and other functional materials.
