Method · TEM
Transmission electron microscopy in the Netherlands
Transmission-electron imaging or diffraction of electron-transparent specimens. 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 is the structure of a layer or interface at nanometre to atomic scale?
- Are there voids, defects, grain boundaries or an interlayer at an interface?
- What crystal structure or elemental distribution does a nanoscale region have?
What it cannot establish alone
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.
A question a laboratory can answer
A 20 nm oxide between a metal contact and silicon may have partly crystallised during annealing. We need a cross-section from one annealed and one reference sample, with elemental mapping across the interface.
Potential Dutch facilities
13 facilities publish TEM capability in Eindhoven, Leiden, Amsterdam, Delft, Enschede, Groningen, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Petten, Utrecht 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.
Problems where it helps
- Thin-film thickness: choosing a measurementEllipsometry, X-ray reflectivity or a cross-section? How film type, thickness range and stack decide the measurement, and what to prepare.