At the institute of Materials research, light microscopy as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy is used to deal with questions concerning microstructure and analytical issues. Integral phase and texture analysis is carried out by means of two X-ray diffractometers. Additionally, X-ray fluorescence analysis is available at the institute.
Conjunction of the different integral and microscopic methods delivers results exceeding the power of isolated investigations by far. Especially the combination of imaging (LM, SEM, TEM), composition-sensitive imaging (BSEand HAADF imaging), diffraction (XRD, EBSD, SAED/CBED) and spectroscopy (EDX, EELS and EFTEM) is extremely fruitful in this context.
Effective sample preparation establishes the basis for further micro structural work. For this purpose, a well-equipped metallographic laboratory is available. Samples for optical or scanning electron microscopy can be processed further by chemical, plasma or ion beam etching. There is also equipment for coating of insulator samples on-hand.
Special attention has to be paid to the preparation of samples for transmission electron microscopy. Here, it is necessary to produce samples exhibiting a few dozen of nanometres in thickness at the regions of interest. Besides the complete metallographic equipment, various methods of mechanic preparation (as sawing, dimpling and ultrasonic disc cutting) are available, as well as different instruments for ion beam etching.
Instrumantation:
- SEM Zeiss Ulta 55 with SE, BSE, In-lens SE and BSE as well as EDX and EBSD-Detectors
- TEM Philips Tecnai F30 with CCD-camera, STEM unit, HAADF and EDX detector as well as an imaging EEL-spectrometer (GIF)
- Siemens D5000 powder diffractometer (Bragg-Brentano focusing) and D5000TX texture diffractometer
- Various optical microscopes including type Leica MM6
- Fully equipped metallographic laboratory
- Equipment for sample coting and ion beam etching of SEM samples
- Equipment for mechanical (dimple grinder and ultrasonic disc cutter) as well as ion-beam thinning (Gatan DuoMill and PIPS, Bal-Tec RES100) of TEM samples is available