A Telepresence Microscopy Research Session In The DOE2000 Materials Microcharacterization Collaboratory

Abstract

<jats:p>One of the primary research components of the DOE2000 Materials Microcharacterization Collaboratory involves studies of catalyst materials for reduction of NOx emissions from diesel engine exhausts. A series of experimental catalysts is currently under investigation with colleagues from Ford Research Laboratory. The major thrust of this research is the study of catalyst reactions to determine the progressive changes in the structure and morphology of the catalytic materials with temperature and time under conditions simulating diesel exhaust exposures. Because the High Temperature Materials Laboratory (HTML) provides an <jats:italic>ex-situ</jats:italic> reactor system that permits TEM samples to be examined after sequential reactions without intermediate atmospheric exposures, the research was undertaken on a collaboratory basis, with microscopy sessions conducted remotely via telepresence. This permits Ford scientists to interact with HTML (and/or other collaboratory) scientists during the TEM sessions, but does not require their time and involvement during the actual reactor runs. The first of these telepresence sessions was held recently, as described below.</jats:p>

Development of a System to Provide Full, Real-time Remote Control of a Scanning Electron Microscope across the Second Generation Internet: The Teaching SEM

“…In order to limit the total costs involved, a number of these projects combined to form the Materials Microcharacterization Collaboratory, which is a project within the U.S. Department of Energy's DOE2000 program. Collaborating institutions include Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) (Zaluzec, 1998), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) (Allard et al, 1998;Wright, 1998), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) (O'Keefe et al, 1998), the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (Postek et al, 1998). In comparison to these projects, the current work is extremely low budget and seeks to use a later model instrument with a more accessible computer architecture and off-the-shelf software to implement a similar system.…”

“…At least two other groups are working along similar lines and use the Timbuktu Pro software package; Voekl et al (1996) at ORNL, and Smith et al (1996) at California State University, Hayward. Allard et al (1998) employ Timbuktu to remotely control an Apple Macintosh data acquisition computer, running Gatan's Digital Micrograph software, on a Hitachi HF-2000 transmission electron microscope (TEM). Smith et al (1996) have employed a comparable system to the current work and remotely control a Philips XL40 SEM across an ATM network via pcAnywhere, a similar remote control software package from Symantec.…”