The XL-30 ESEM has secondary electron, gaseous secondary electron, wide field and x-ray detectors. It has a video printer for quickly producing good quality images and, like our other instruments, has the ability to save digital images on our file server system.
This machine is capable of imaging almost any sample. The only exceptions are volatile liquids, gases and samples that are too large. It is possible to image water and many other liquids by cooling them to a temperature where their vapor pressure becomes low enough to prevent unwanted evaporation at the chosen pressure of operation. (Liquids are seen as dark opaque shapes because the electrons do not penetrate through the liquid as light waves do through water.)
The unique conditions available with an ESEM make them useful for a large variety of experiments, not usually possible in an SEM. Besides cooling the sample, it is possible to heat it as high as 1500 C. Special stages can be constructed so that samples can be subjected to failure analysis; for example by using a strain stage to fracture materials. Such events can conveniently be video taped for repeated viewing and for timing purposes.

Because the water vapor acts to neutralize any charge buildup on the surface of the sample, almost no preparation is required. Thus it is possible to image corroded surfaces, paints and other synthetic finishes, glasses, ceramics, rocks, minerals, polymers and any other materials with low electrical conductivity, all without having to coat the samples with a conductive layer of gold or carbon. This means that everything is seen in its natural state.

Additionally this machine has a TSL electron backscatter pattern (EBSP)  and phase identification system for determining the orientation of crystalline grains in a  sample. The results from automatic stage or beam scanning are stored  and may be displayed in a variety of different ways including colored  maps and pole figures.