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Handbook of Sample Preparation for Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Microanalysis

  • Book
  • © 2009

Overview

Authors:
  1. Patrick Echlin
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  • Identifies problems that all specimens present in examining their structure and analysis in the SEM

  • Describes a series of protocols to ensure that a specimen is properly prepared once the particular problems are identified

  • Guides the reader through a general approach to the problem before a particular procedure is applied to the requirements of a given sample

  • Designed both as an introduction for the novice and as a guide for the practicing scanning microscopist

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 1-9

  3. Sample Collection and Selection

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 11-18

  4. Sample Preparation Tools

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 19-29

  5. Sample Support

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 31-45

  6. Sample Embedding 
and Mounting

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 47-63

  7. Sample Exposure

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 65-95

  8. Sample Dehydration

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 97-136

  9. Sample Stabilization for Imaging in the SEM

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 137-183

  10. Sample Stabilization to Preserve Chemical Identity

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 185-233

  11. Sample Cleaning

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 235-245

  12. Sample Surface Charge Elimination

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 247-298

  13. Sample Artifacts and Damage

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 299-306

  14. Additional Sources of Information

    • Patrick Echlin
    Pages 307-315

  15. Back Matter

    Pages 317-330
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Keywords

About this book

Scanning electr on microscopy (SEM) and x-ray microanalysis can produce magnified images and in situ chemical information from virtually any type of specimen. The two instruments generally operate in a high vacuum and a very dry environment in order to produce the high energy beam of electrons needed for imaging and analysis. With a few notable exceptions, most specimens destined for study in the SEM are poor conductors and composed of beam sensitive light elements containing variable amounts of water. In the SEM, the imaging system depends on the specimen being sufficiently electrically conductive to ensure that the bulk of the incoming electrons go to ground. The formation of the image depends on collecting the different signals that are scattered as a consequence of the high energy beam interacting with the sample. Backscattered electrons and secondary electrons are generated within the primary beam-sample interactive volume and are the two principal signals used to form images. The backscattered electron coefficient ( ? ) increases with increasing atomic number of the specimen, whereas the secondary electron coefficient ( ? ) is relatively insensitive to atomic number. This fundamental diff- ence in the two signals can have an important effect on the way samples may need to be prepared. The analytical system depends on collecting the x-ray photons that are generated within the sample as a consequence of interaction with the same high energy beam of primary electrons used to produce images.

Reviews

This handbook should find its way to the reference bookshelf of all imaging laboratories. It should also become required reading for anyone being trained for SEM work, or anyone who might need to have their samples examined by using such techniques. In that way, it will be less likely that deficient results will be published and that the full potential of the SEM be realized. -- Iolo ap Gwynn, Microscopy and Microanalysis (2010)

About the author

Patrick Echlin was a lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences and Director of the Multi-Imaging Centre, School of Biological Science, University of Cambridge until he retired in 1999. He has taught for more than thirty years at the Lehigh University Microscopy School and is the author and co-auther of eight books on scanning electron microscopy and x-ray microanalysis. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society and received the Distinguished Scientist Award in Biological Sciences from the Microscope Society of America in 2001.

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