Complete guide from first contract to independent instrument time
Contact facility director to discuss your project and possible instruments and methods.
Create Temple FOM Account. The NIC uses the Facility Online Manager (FOM) system to manage instruments and billing. Users must have an active FOM account to schedule time on instruments.
Use the FOM Quick Start Guide to register. You will need an active FOAPAL account to initiate work at the NIC. For projects requiring multiple FOAPALs, add a month and year to the “research description name” (e.g., 2026-09 Au Nano Particles Study) to avoid confusion.
Submit an Access Request Form (ARF) to the facility director in electronic format over email. Once you have a valid FOM account and submitted ARF, the NIC manager will contact you to discuss all details of your first training.
Getting trained to operate NIC instruments independently. For more frequent analysis of larger numbers of samples, you may prefer to learn to operate NIC instruments.
Training sessions will cover instrument operation and safety procedures as well as techniques for obtaining useful information. Each instrument requires a different number of training sessions dependent on your research requirements.
Training sessions are scheduled by appointment and include charges for instrument and staff time, so be sure to refer to current NIC Instrument Rates. The total time required to demonstrate competence on an instrument is determined by the supervising NIC Laboratory Manager. Instructions for signing up for training are available in the FOM Quick Start Guide.
Training is best suited for users who anticipate spending many hours mastering a particular analytical technique. In many cases it is more time and cost effective to have samples analyzed by an NIC Laboratory Manager.
Inside FOM, select the “To be trained” option under the instrument you need. You can add more than one.
| TEM imaging | Conventional bright-field; high-resolution imaging to 0.20 nm lattice resolution |
| Diffraction | Selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), recorded digitally |
| STEM | Scanning transmission imaging up to ×2,000,000 |
| EDS | EDAX Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy |
| Specimen range | Biological, polymeric, soft-matter, nanomaterial and inorganic specimens |
| Beam-sensitive work | Operation at 40, 60 or 80 kV for radiation-sensitive materials |
If your sample is not electrically conductive, or is sensitive to electron beam damage, we recommend covering it with a nanometre-thick gold film before imaging.
| Unsupervised use ¹ (trained user) | $45 / hr |
| Supervised / assisted use | $114 / hr |
| Training (flat rate per person) | $138 |
| 6-month subscription ² (per group or PI) | $2,000 |
| 6-month subscription ² (third and following users) | $1,000 / user |
| 12-month subscription ² (per group or PI) | $3,000 |
| 12-month subscription ² (third and following users) | $1,500 / user |
Download, complete, and have your PI sign the form for the instrument you need.
Contact our facility personal here
Science Education and Research Center (SERC)
Room 008
info.em@temple.edu
Publications using EM Lab data must acknowledge the facility.
See here.