Method · SEM
Scanning electron microscopy in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany
Electron images of surface morphology or a prepared cross-section, with resolution depending on the sample and instrument. What it answers, what it cannot establish on its own, what a laboratory will ask, and how many Dutch, Belgian and German facilities publish it.
What it answers
- What does a surface or fracture look like, from micrometres down to a few nanometres?
- What features on a crack, pore or delamination help investigate where it started?
- How thick are the layers in a prepared cross-section?
What it cannot establish alone
- Elemental composition from an image alone; this requires an additional measurement such as EDX.
- Chemical bonding or oxidation state from ordinary SEM imaging.
- A buried interface without exposing it, or a three-dimensional structure from one two-dimensional image.
- The cause of a crack from its appearance alone; process history and reference samples help test possible causes.
Before you contact a laboratory
What a laboratory will ask.
A laboratory can say whether it can help only when these are known. Unknowns are fine; say so.
- The feature to image, its expected size and the required field of view.
- Sample dimensions, material and whether it is conductive or vacuum-sensitive.
- Surface imaging or a cross-section, and whether cutting, polishing or conductive coating is acceptable.
- Whether elemental analysis is also needed and whether beam-sensitive areas must be preserved.
A question a laboratory can answer
A 2 µm hard coating on steel cracks after thermal cycling. We need images of the crack network on the surface and in a polished cross-section of two 15 × 15 mm samples.
Potential Dutch, Belgian and German facilities
220 facilities publish SEM capability in Berlin, Dresden, Hannover, Hamburg, Jena, Chemnitz, Noordwijk, Stuttgart, Aachen, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken, Augsburg, Bayreuth, Bielefeld, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Brussels, Delft, Düsseldorf, Eindhoven, Erlangen, Esslingen am Neckar, Frankfurt am Main, Freiberg, Ghent, Halle (Saale), Heidelberg, Kaiserslautern, Köln, Leipzig, Louvain-la-Neuve, Magdeburg, Mainz, Mons, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Osnabrück, Paderborn, Potsdam, Rudolstadt, Schmalkalden, Tübingen, Ulm, Wildau, Würzburg, Aalen, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Aschaffenburg, Aschheim, Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, Bamberg, Bonn, Brandenburg an der Havel, Braunschweig, Breda, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Cottbus, Darmstadt, Deggendorf, Denkendorf, Diepenbeek, Diepholz, Dortmund, Duisburg, Eberswalde, Enschede, Erfurt, Essen, Flensburg, Frankfurt (Oder), Fürth, Garching, Geesthacht, Gelsenkirchen, Gießen, Göttingen, Greifswald, Greiz, Groningen, Gummersbach, Hamm, Hanau, Heilbronn, Hildesheim, Hof, Ilmenau, Itzehoe, Kassel, Kempten, Kiel, Kleve, Koblenz, Krefeld, Lemgo, Leuven, Liège, Lübeck, Mannheim, Marburg, Mittweida, München, Münster, Namur, Neubiberg, Nürnberg, Oberhausen, Oldenburg, Pajottegem, Pfinztal, Pforzheim, Planegg, Potsdam-Golm, Radeberg, Rheinbach, Rijssen, Rostock, Rüsselsheim am Main, Sankt Augustin, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Schweinfurt, Siegen, Solingen, Steinfurt, Stralsund, Utrecht, Wageningen, Weiden, Weimar, Weingarten, Wismar, Wolfenbüttel and Zittau.
Leads are based on published capabilities; current suitability and availability must be confirmed with the laboratory.
Describe your sample and question. The first answer is free and needs no account; laboratory names are shown in a free workspace.
Often combined with
- SEM with EDXScanning electron microscopy combined with elemental point analysis or mapping.
- Cross-section preparationPreparation of a section exposing a buried layer, interface, or defect.
- Focused-ion-beam processingSite-specific milling, cross-sectioning, micromachining, or TEM-lamella preparation.
- Atomic force microscopyNanoscale surface topography and roughness with probe-mode-dependent property mapping.