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The SEM Gas Heating Sample Holder integrates a sealed environmental cell, metal & PEEKsil gas delivery tubing, multifunctional microfabricated chips, electrical biasing connections, and dedicated control hardware into a versatile platform for in-situ gas-phase SEM experiments. The environmental cell is formed by two microfabricated silicon chips with electron-transparent silicon nitride (SiN) windows. A sample is loaded onto one of the chips before the two chips are sealed together, creating a controlled gas environment around the specimen that remains isolated from the microscope vacuum.
A precision-engineered, screw-free loading and sealing mechanism enables fast, reproducible sample loading and automatic alignment of the SiN windows. Controlled gas flow is delivered through the sealed environmental cell at pressures up to 2 bar using Hummingbird Scientific's gas delivery systems, with a dedicated purge line for rapid contamination-free experimental gas switching. Optimized holder geometry and a low thermal mass MEMS microheater provide stable imaging during high-temperature experiments with closed-loop heating above 1000 °C and integrated 4-point on-chip temperature sensing.
Compatible microfabricated chips for MEMS heating and electrical biasing enable thermal and electrical stimuli to be applied during controlled gas-phase experiments, allowing researchers to observe gas-induced surface transformations, oxidation, corrosion, catalyst activation, phase transformations, and degradation processes in real time under realistic reaction environments.