The document discusses three advanced microscopy techniques: X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). XRD is used to characterize crystalline materials and determine their internal structure, while SEM provides detailed surface images at the nanoscale, useful in various biomedical applications. HRTEM allows for direct imaging of atomic structures, critical for studying materials like semiconductors and nanoparticles.
The document discusses three advanced microscopy techniques: X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). XRD is used to characterize crystalline materials and determine their internal structure, while SEM provides detailed surface images at the nanoscale, useful in various biomedical applications. HRTEM allows for direct imaging of atomic structures, critical for studying materials like semiconductors and nanoparticles.
The document discusses three advanced microscopy techniques: X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). XRD is used to characterize crystalline materials and determine their internal structure, while SEM provides detailed surface images at the nanoscale, useful in various biomedical applications. HRTEM allows for direct imaging of atomic structures, critical for studying materials like semiconductors and nanoparticles.
The document discusses three advanced microscopy techniques: X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). XRD is used to characterize crystalline materials and determine their internal structure, while SEM provides detailed surface images at the nanoscale, useful in various biomedical applications. HRTEM allows for direct imaging of atomic structures, critical for studying materials like semiconductors and nanoparticles.
X-ray diffraction, a phenomenon in which the atoms of a crystal, by virtue of their uniform spacing, cause an interference pattern of the waves present in an incident beam of X-rays. The atomic planes of the crystal act on the X-rays in exactly the same manner as does a uniformly ruled diffraction grating on a beam of light. A beam of X-rays contacts a crystal with an angle of incidence θ. It is reflected off the atoms of the crystal with the same angle θ. The X-rays reflect off atomic planes in the crystal that are a distance d apart. The X-rays reflecting off two different planes must interfere constructively to form an interference pattern; otherwise, the X-rays would interfere destructively and form no pattern. To interfere constructively, the difference in path length between the beams reflecting off two atomic planes must be a whole number (n) of wavelengths (λ), or nλ. This leads to the Bragg law nλ = 2d sin θ. By observing the interference pattern, the internal structure of the crystal can be deduced.
XRD finds the geometry or shape of a molecule using X-rays. XRD techniques are based on the elastic scattering of X-rays from structures that have long range order. The X-rays get diffracted by a crystal because the wavelength of X-rays is similar to the inter-atomic spacing in the crystals.
x-ray diffraction example
When the X-ray beam encounters the regular three-dimensional arrangements of atoms in a crystal, most of the X-rays will destructively interfere with each-other and cancel each-other out, but in some specific directions the X-ray beams interfere constructively and reinforce one another. It is these reinforced diffracted X-rays that produce the characteristic X-ray diffraction pattern that is used for crystal structure determination.
X-ray diffraction is a technique to characterize crystalline materials. It is useful for determining
the structure, crystal orientation, crystal defect, strain, atomic spacing, and grain size. It is also useful to determine the percentage of crystallinity before and after chemical treatment of natural fibers. 2.SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope):
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that contain information about the surface topography and composition of the sample. The electron beam is scanned in a raster scan pattern, and the position of the beam is combined with the intensity of the detected signal to produce an image. In the most common SEM mode, secondary electrons emitted by atoms excited by the electron beam are detected using a secondary electron detector (Everhart–Thornley detector). The number of secondary electrons that can be detected, and thus the signal intensity, depends, among other things, on specimen topography. Some SEMs can achieve resolutions better than 1 nanometer.
Scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) use an electron beam to image samples with a resolution down to the nanometer scale. The electrons are emitted from a filament and collimated into a beam in the electron source. The beam is then focused on the sample surface by a set of lenses in the electron column. How does an electron lens work? And which kind of lenses exist? How are lenses combined to form an electron column? In this blog, we will answer these questions and give a general insight into the working principle of an electron column.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging is a robust tool to study such details at the nanoscale and to push the analyzes further. SEMs are highly versatile instruments that are shown to be particularly useful in various biomedical research fields, ranging from orthodontics to bone grafts and tissue engineering
High-resolution transmission electron microscopy is an imaging mode of specialized
transmission electron microscopes that allows for direct imaging of the atomic structure of samples. It is a powerful tool to study properties of materials on the atomic scale, such as semiconductors, metals, nanoparticles and sp2-bonded carbon (e.g., graphene, C nanotubes). While this term is often also used to refer to high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, mostly in high angle annular dark field mode, this article describes mainly the imaging of an object by recording the two-dimensional spatial wave amplitude distribution in the image plane, similar to a "classic" light microscope. For disambiguation, the technique is also often referred to as phase contrast transmission electron microscopy, although this term is less appropriate. At present, the highest point resolution realised in high resolution transmission electron microscopy is around 0.5 ångströms (0.050 nm).At these small scales, individual atoms of a crystal and defects can be resolved. For 3-dimensional crystals, it is necessary to combine several views, taken from different angles, into a 3D map. This technique is called electron tomography.
Fig:High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope)
Working Principle:
An electron source usually named as the “Gun” produces a stream of electrons which is accelerated towards the specimen using a positive electrical potential. This stream is then focused using metal apertures and magnetic lenses called “condenser lenses” into a thin, focused, monochromatic beam.
Point defects can often be corrected but can be harder to detect. Planar faults such as crystallographic shear planes, stacking faults, or interfaces can be a bigger problem in the quality control of material production, and normally depend on specific atomic interactions within a material.
4.Measure the thickness of a thin film or the thickness of a layer of a multilayer device.
Thin film thickness measurement on curved surfaces and large parts is easy with the MProbe HC system. MProbeHC is based on MProbe 20 Vis platform with advanced data analysis algorithms specifically optimized for single and dual layer applications. It, alsouses manual probe instead of the sample stage. Manual probe is connected to measurement unit with a fiber optics cable. This gives flexibility to measure thickness on curved and large surfaces in any location. Some application examples include: anti-UV and hardcoat layers on headlights, bumpers, taillight covers, anti-fog coating on lenses and other surface in automotive manufacturing process and coating on eye glass lenses. Standard manual probe is used for measurement of parts 20mm or larger. Custom probes can be done to measure coating thickness on area as small as 10mm. For thickness measurement on smaller or round/cylindrical parts we recommend MProbe 40 MSP system
Thickness measurements with cross-sectional SEM
Scanning electron microscopy is a great method for analyzing the thickness of semiconductor thin films. SEM works for both single- and multi-layer materials, and can in addition to the thickness also provide information about the surface morphology and elemental composition of the sample.
The method is suitable for conductive and semiconductive materials with a thickness between 100 nm and 100 μm. Non-conductive materials can be analyzed with the method if the sample is prepared by depositing a thin layer of conductive material on the surface.
