Method · SEM
Scanning electron microscopy in the Netherlands
Electron-beam imaging of surfaces and cross-sections with detector-dependent contrast. What it answers, what it cannot establish on its own, what a laboratory will ask, and how many Dutch facilities publish it.
What it answers
- What does a surface or fracture look like, from micrometres down to a few nanometres?
- Where did a crack, pore or delamination start, and how did it spread?
- How thick are the layers in a prepared cross-section?
What it cannot establish alone
- Chemical bonding or oxidation state
- Elemental composition without an attached X-ray detector
- Buried interfaces without a prepared cross-section
- Features smaller than a few nanometres, which need TEM
- Wet, outgassing or vacuum-sensitive samples without a low-vacuum or environmental mode
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.
- What feature must be seen and its expected size
- Sample dimensions and whether it fits a standard stage
- Whether the material is conductive, and if not whether a thin conductive coating or low-vacuum imaging is acceptable
- Surface view or cross-section
- Whether topography, material contrast or both matter
- Whether elemental analysis of spots is also needed
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 facilities
15 facilities publish SEM capability in Noordwijk, Amsterdam, Delft, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Utrecht, Veldhoven and Wageningen.
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.