OCTOBER 2025

CHTP 2025 Image Contest

The CHTP will once again hold its annual Image of the Year contest. The winning image will be featured in our winter newsletter, and a framed print of the image will be mounted on the wall outside of the Centre. The winner will also receive a copy of the print and will have their research showcased in a future CHTP newsletter article. The contest rules are as follows:

• Images must have been acquired with equipment at the CHTP (i.e. light microscopes, electron microscopes, micro-CT, etc.).
• Images acquired within the last three years are eligible for submission, provided they have not been submitted to a previous contest.
• Images submitted to the contest must be acquired by the user; images acquired by CHTP staff do not qualify for the contest. Automated micro-CT images are permitted.
• Only one image may be submitted per user.
• False colouration of images is permitted (and encouraged).
• Images must not have been previously published or be published in the future.
• Images must be submitted in the file format and pixel resolution at which they were acquired.
• All entries must be received by December 1, 2025.

The finalists will be selected from the submissions by CHTP staff based on their artistic merit. The contest winner will be decided by a poll of all CHTP users. All users will be able to vote in the poll for their favourite image regardless of whether or not they’ve submitted an image to the contest. The image with the most user votes will be crowned the winner. Voting is limited to one vote per user. Only CHTP users may vote in the poll. Votes submitted by non-users will be omitted.

Please email your submissions to sem@dentistry.ubc.ca with the subject line “CHTP 2025 Image Contest” and a brief one-sentence description of the image.

Characterization@UBC Research Cluster Fall School Announcement

The CHTP is part of Characterization@UBC, a newly funded research cluster that unites experts who lead state-of-the-art facilities in advanced characterization across departments and faculties on both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

Characterization@UBC Fall School

The research cluster is hosting a Fall School event from October 20 to 22 at the UBC Fred Kaiser Building, Room 2020/30. Alongside UBC faculty and cluster members who will be sharing their expertise, there is an exciting lineup of speakers, including:

• Dr. Juan Carlos Idrobo (University of Washington)
• Dr. Arthur Blackburn (University of Victoria)
• Dr. Karen Kavanagh (Simon Fraser University)

Registration for the school is now open. Secure your spot.

Micro Grants

The cluster offers two funding opportunities:

1. Micro Travel Grants support researchers attending conferences, workshops, and professional meetings related to characterization.
2. Micro Access Grants provide funding for researchers to access shared facilities across UBC campuses, with the goal of mobilizing expertise, equipment use, and knowledge sharing.

Applications for both grants are currently being accepted. You are encouraged to apply!

Imaging with the Focused Ion Beam: Enhanced Channelling Contrast

The focused ion beam in the FEI Helios NanoLab 650 FIB-SEM is a tool that is routinely used for milling applications, from basic cross-section preparation and imaging to more advanced applications such as TEM lamella preparation and image stack acquisition 3D modelling.

Figure 1: Example of a simple FIB-milled pattern

However, the usefulness of the tool extends well beyond just milling. Similar to an electron beam, an ion beam is capable of producing secondary electrons and backscattered ions. This ion beam can also serve as a tool for image acquisition. This is, of course, necessary for setting up milling applications, as any FIB user will attest. Imaging with the ion beam is not limited to setting up milling patterns; it can also be a useful tool for acquiring images with unique and enhanced contrast mechanisms compared to those acquired with an electron beam. Let’s look at one such application area where the ion beam excels: channelling contrast.

Because ions are much larger, more massive, and travelling at lower velocities than electrons, they have different interactions with the sample surface and different trajectories within the sample. The secondary electron yield from an ion beam is much more sensitive to crystallographic orientation than that of an electron beam. A contrast mechanism—referred to as channelling contrast—is much more prominent when imaging with the ion beam. As a result, images of material surfaces can have strong contrast due to grain orientation.

Figure 2: Secondary electron images of a copper surface acquired with the electron beam (left) and the ion beam (right) of the FEI Helios NanoLab 650 FIB-SEM at the CHTP

In the above example, a copper surface is imaged using both an electron beam and a gallium ion beam. While there is some channelling contrast visible in the electron beam image, this mechanism is much stronger in the ion beam image. This is a quick and easy method for imaging sample grains without doing crystallographic analyses such as electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), which can take significantly longer. It should be noted that contrast due to topographic features is a much stronger effect than channelling contrast. Consequently, samples that are not well polished either via mechanical polishing or ion beam will not show strong channelling contrast. This can be seen in the bottom portion of the image in the above example, where the smooth surface stops abruptly, resulting in a band with little channelling contrast.

If you’re interested in learning about imaging applications with the focused ion beam, please reach out to CHTP staff for more information!

CHTP Tours: New Dates Available

The CHTP has been hosting lab tours throughout the summer for interested students and researchers who would like to see the facility and its equipment. Each of the tours includes a demo of either micro-CT or the electron microscopes. The tour offerings have been updated, and our new dates are scheduled throughout the fall semester.

Sign up for a tour

Corporate Sponsors

The CHTP is grateful to the following corporate sponsors for their significant in-kind Canada Foundation for Innovation support:

We acknowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).