University of Heidelberg
Home > Facilities

Facilites

The following equipment is present at the Research Group:

Sample preparation

Crushing, milling and separation:

  • Jaw crusher, cutting mill (Retsch) or roller mill, sieves, Wilfley table

Heavy mineral separation:

  • One air conditioned laboratory (called "Heavy mineral Lab") with two modern fume hood systems, two drying ovens, ion-free water (pipe), and air pressure (pipe)
  • LST-separation by two high speed centrifuges, two high vacuum pumps, five heater with magnetic steering, high precision scale, glass and ceramic equipment for heavy liquid (LST, Methylenjodid) separation, (at once 10 samples with Methylenjodid)
  • Frantz magnetic separator
  • Two modern Stereo microscopes (Wild-Leica) for apatite and zircon grain selection. Grains are used for FT- and (U-Th)/He dating

 

Mounting, grinding, polishing and etching equipment:

  • 1 RotoPol-22 of Struers, 1 RotoForce 4 of Struers

 

Etching of mounts and mica, annealing equipment:

  • One air conditioned laboratory (called "Chem Lab") with two modern fume hood systems (one normal etchant resistant and one HF-resistant), one drying oven, ion-free water (pipe), and air pressure (pipe)
  • Glass and ceramic equipment used for
  • 1 VWR heated circulating water bath, (T.-const. ± 0.05 °C)
  • Three annealing ovens

 

Preparation before and after Neutron-Irradiation

(FRM II, Munich, Germany)
  • Glass standards, mineral standards, U-free mica, sample holder
  • Room to detach the mica from the mineral mount after irradiation
  • Large high magnification lens with light, separate stereo microscope
  • TEM-nets, glass slides, special glue (nail lacquer)
  • Irradiation certified safety guard (absolute required)
  • Allowance certificate for handling neutron activated material

Dating, length and Dpar measurement equipment (Ion-Track Laboratory)

  • One Olympus BX 50 (transmitted and reflected light) with the new complete Autoscan system I. The system is used for FT-Dating and length measurement.
  • One Leica Aristomat microscope (transmitted and reflected light) with the new complete Autoscan system I. The system is used for FT-Dating and length measurement.
  • One Jenapol microscope (transmitted and reflected light) equipped with the Autoscan system II. The system is used for Dpar measurement.
  • The new "Autoscan Systems Pty. Ltd" system I consist of a new designed 3-axis stage (AS3000i/f) with external Sony laserscales (BL 55) for each axis; 200 nm positional repeatability on 75x75x3 mm area. an electronic controller (EL300) with all necessary connecting cables. three-axis joystick controller/ keypad (JS300). IBM-compatible Pentium 4-based computer, complete with frame grabber board. High resolution Pelletier cooled colour CCD camera (Colorview III, Soft-Imaging). Windows based Trakscan version 7 application software (SW500) with user manual.
  • The previous Autoscan system II consist of a new designed 3-axis stage (AS3000B); 5 µm positional repeatability on 75x75x3 mm area, an electronic controller (EL300) with all necessary connecting cables. Three-axis joystick controller/keypad (JS300). IBM-compatible Pentium 4-based computer, complete with frame grabber board. High resolution Pelletier black and white camera CCD camera (F-View II, Soft-Imaging). Windows based Trakscan version 7 application software (SW500) with user manual.
  • Imaging analytical software: the three previously described systems are connected to the imaging analytical software analysis (Soft Imaging Systems). This image analytical software has the possibility to generate 3D-images of objects visible in optical microscopy.

 

Contact: Webmaster - E-Mail
to top of page