Lecture

Sample Preparation for SEM

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture by Aurélie Favier covers the preparation of polished sections for scanning electron microscopy, focusing on stopping hydration by solvent exchange. The process includes sawing the sample, immersing it in isopropanol, drying, resin coating, polishing with sandpaper and diamond particles, and applying a conductive carbon layer.

In MOOC

Cement Chemistry and Sustainable Cementitious Materials

We all know the concrete used to build our houses, offices, schools, or bridges, but do you know why concrete resists? The aim of this course is to offer solid knowledge on cement chemistry to practioners or to new student in the field. It is therefore not necessary to have a cement background, however basic concepts in chemistry, physics and crystallography can help. This course lasts 6 weeks during which you can take theoretical courses and tutorials to test the cement in the laboratory. You will learn h

Official source

Quiz

Related concepts (17)

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.

Electron microscope

An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. They use electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light, electron microscopes have a higher resolution of about 0.1 nm, which compares to about 200 nm for light microscopes.

Transmission electron microscopy

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a grid. An image is formed from the interaction of the electrons with the sample as the beam is transmitted through the specimen. The image is then magnified and focused onto an imaging device, such as a fluorescent screen, a layer of photographic film, or a sensor such as a scintillator attached to a charge-coupled device.

Scanning tunneling microscope

A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. STM senses the surface by using an extremely sharp conducting tip that can distinguish features smaller than 0.1 nm with a 0.01 nm (10 pm) depth resolution. This means that individual atoms can routinely be imaged and manipulated.

Scanning probe microscopy

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is a branch of microscopy that forms images of surfaces using a physical probe that scans the specimen. SPM was founded in 1981, with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope, an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. The first successful scanning tunneling microscope experiment was done by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer. The key to their success was using a feedback loop to regulate gap distance between the sample and the probe.

Related lectures (33)

Transmission Electron Microscopy Basics Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video

Introduces the basics of Transmission Electron Microscopy, covering TEM user interface, camera settings, vacuum overview, and image analysis.

Scanning Electron Microscopy

Explores Scanning Electron Microscopy principles, signal contrasts, resolution factors, and sample interactions.

Checking Probes-layer quality

Covers quality assessment of probes-layers using Resonant Mirror, Surface Plasmon Resonance, and Scanning Electron Microscopy.

SEM Basics: Introduction to Electron Microscopy

Introduces the basics of scanning electron microscopy, covering electron sources, lenses, vacuum system, and detectors.

Scanning Electron Microscopy: Basics