Polishing Methods for Metallic and Ceramic Transmission Electron Microscopy Specimens: Revision 1.

摘要

In recent years, the increasing sophistication of transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies of materials has necessitated more exacting methods of specimen preparation. The present report describes improved equipment and techniques for electropolishing and chemically polishing a wide variety of specimens. Many of the specimens used in developing or improving the techniques to be described were irradiated with heavy ions such as nickel or vanadium to study radiation damage. The high cost of these specimens increased the need for reproducible methods of initial preparation postirradiation processing, and final thinning for TEM examination. A technique was also developed to salvage specimens that had previously been thinned but were unusable for various reasons. Jet polishing is, in general, the method of choice for surface polishing, sectioning, and thinning. The older beaker electropolishing method is included in this report because it is inexpensive and simple, and gives some insight into how the more recent methods were developed.