To celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday the team at the University's new Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (NMRC) decided to send Her Majesty a unique message. Using the focussed ion beam (FIB) on one of the centre's scanning electron microscopes (FEI Quanta 200 3D DualBeam FIB-SEM) Dr Christopher Parmenter, and Dr Mike Fay were able to etch a tiny birthday message onto an individual hair of a Corgi. Spanning just a few cuticles, roughly 20 micrometres x 20 micrometres (that's 0.02mm x 0.02mm!) the message reads 'Happy 90th Birthday Your Majesty from the University of Nottingham' and was embellished with a crown.
The FIB works by etching and manipulating materials with nanoscale precision using a focused beam of Gallium (Ga) ions. Imaging simultaneously occurs using a beam of electrons in a traditional SEM capacity. This analytical facility is typically used to 'cut' a window into samples so that a given depth of their internal structure can be imaged, or to thin down samples so they are thin enough (100s nanometres) to be electron transparent and suitable for analysis by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). However, it also has artistic capabilities as the NMRC team have shown!
For more information on this unique message to the Queen, and the NMRC in general read the BBC article, the University press release or listen to the BBC world service radio interview with the NMRC research and business manager Dr Karen Alvey.
Posted on Tuesday 3rd May 2016