With our microscope, we can optically analyze thin sections and suchlike, create overview images and prepare everything for laser ablation. Moreover, polarization filters, reflected or transmitted light and possible magnifications of 5 x, 10 x, 20 x, 50 x and 100 x can be used.

The laboratory for microscopy focuses on the specific requirements of microfacies analysis of lake sediments, but also offers a wide range of possibilities for other applications. Sedimentological, petrographic and microfacies analyses on all kinds of covered and uncovered thin sections and polished sections with transmitted and incident light are performed.

Optical microscopes are available in the Microscope Lab for different techniques, such as brightfield, polarization contrast, fluorescence.

We also have the FlowCam 5000 by Yokogawa, which is a particle analyzer capable of taking optical images. It is comparable to a flow cytometer and features a syringe pump and 100 x 700 µm glass capillary, where liquid passes through. During a sample run, images of the flow are taken with a camera, magnified with a 10x objective. Detected particles are …

Various binocular and polarization microscopes are used to study mineral separates, and rock thin sections. Additionally, a micro mill for high‐resolution milling to recover sample powder for chemical and isotopic analysis is available.

The preparation lab offers different preparation methods such as thin-section production, polishes, dye methods, hardening methods and others.