Two methods for aligning a mechanical dimpling device for TEM sample preparation
✍ Scribed by Bradley, S. A. ;Reddy, J. F. ;King, Wayne E.
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 1987
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 386 KB
- Volume
- 6
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0741-0581
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✦ Synopsis
Introduction. The preparation of non-conductive, hard, composite, or multiphase materials for observation in the transmission electron microscope often requires mechanical pre-thinning prior to ion-beam milling. Such pre-thinning of samples to the 10-30~m regime results in a reduction in the deleterious effects of differential sputtering, an increase in the amount of uniform electron-optically-thin regions, and a marked reduction in ion-beam milling time when compared to samples that are ion-beam milled without pre-thinning. Mechanical pre-thinning or "dimpling" is described in the schematic diagram of Fig. 1. The specimen (S) is mounted onto a table using a thermoplastic