Mechanical Engineering Electron Microscopy For Beginners Experiments

Cross-sectional Sample Preparation

  1. Take the Nanocoating or surface-treated sample.
  2. Slice the thin regions out of bulk sample.
  3. Remove the excess regions from bulk (or even coating if needed).
  4. Now place multiple samples facing up (to the interface region is not parallel to surface but is now facing up perpendicular to surface). Be careful to store the samples safely after sectioning, otherwise the samples might oxidise.
  5. Mount the samples, so you have a bulk sample to work with.
  6. Follow the routine TEM sample preparation procedure starting with slicing of mounted sample to < 100 µm thickness.
  7. Extract 3 mm disc (but now you will have enough region of interest available to work with).
  8. Use dimpling process to thin down the sample to 2-5 µm
  9. Adopt ion-beam milling to obtain the electron transparent region.