SPECIAL NOTICE
66 -- Auger Electron Spectrometer (AES)
- Notice Date
- 6/13/2023 11:16:02 AM
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- DEPT OF COMMERCE NIST GAITHERSBURG MD 20899 USA
- ZIP Code
- 20899
- Solicitation Number
- NB681030-23-02186
- Response Due
- 6/25/2023 12:00:00 PM
- Archive Date
- 07/10/2023
- Point of Contact
- Nina Lin, Forest Crumpler
- E-Mail Address
-
nina.lin@nist.gov, forest.crumpler@nist.gov
(nina.lin@nist.gov, forest.crumpler@nist.gov)
- Description
- Notice of Intent to Noncompetitively Acquire an Auger Electron Spectrometer (AES). This notice is not a request for a quotation. A solicitation document will not be issued and quotations will not be requested. This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334516 � Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing, with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Physical Measurements Lab (PML) requires an Auger Electron Spectrometer (AES). It will be used in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) system to ascertain the cleanliness of conducting and semiconducting samples on which the yield of low energy electrons will be subsequently measured. These yields are very sensitive to surface cleanliness. The AES will establish that yield measurements are performed on clean samples. For this purpose, it will need sensitivity to small amounts of surface contamination or impurities. The energy analyzer of this system needs to be suitable for X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with the future addition of an x-ray source at 56 degrees from normal incidence. Because low energy secondary electron yields are sensitive to surface contamination, it is important to establish that contamination levels are minimal if the measured yields are to be trusted. The need for low detection threshold for contaminants leads to a stringent requirement for high signal to noise, good energy resolution, and a scanned-Auger mode to establish the uniformity of sample cleanliness. The relationship of Auger peak intensity to absolute coverage (e.g., in percent of a monolayer) is generally considered to be more robust when the beam energy is large compared to the peak energy, leading to a requirement of beam energy of up to 5 keV instead of 3 keV. The need for reproducibility of such a quantitative measurement leads to a requirement of low sensitivity to longitudinal offset of the sample position from optimum working distance. Future extensibility of the system to use the same spectrometer for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy leads to a requirement for good energy resolution and a large working distance so the spectrometer does not physically block x-rays at 56 degrees from normal incidence. NIST conducted market research from April to May 2023 to determine what sources could meet NIST�s minimum requirements. This included surveying vendors through web searches, surveying existing NIST instruments, and consulting colleagues with relevant experience inside and outside of NIST. The results of that market research revealed that only STAIB Instruments, Inc., 01 Stafford Court, Williamsburg, VA 23185 �(UEI: L5LGNYLULE23) appears to be capable of meeting NIST�s requirements. However, any sources that believe they are capable of meeting NIST�s minimum requirements are encouraged to respond to this notice by the response date to provide the following information at a minimum: Company Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number in https://sam.gov; details about what your company is capable of providing that meets or exceeds NIST�s minimum requirements; whether your company is an authorized reseller of the product or service being cited and evidence of such authorization; and any other information that can help NIST determine whether this requirement may be competitively satisfied.� A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Only responses received by the offers due date and time of this notice will be considered by the government. Responses shall be submitted via email to nina.lin@nist.gov.
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://sam.gov/opp/8161d92438284d40b64894f89308a2ae/view)
- Place of Performance
- Address: USA
- Country: USA
- Country: USA
- Record
- SN06713504-F 20230615/230613230110 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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