Using the FIB to characterize nanoparticle materials |
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| Authors: | C R PERREY C B CARTER J R MICHAEL P G KOTULA E A STACH† & V R RADMILOVIC† |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, U.S.A.; Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87185-0886, U.S.A.; National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road Mailstop 72, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | In the 1–100‐nm size regime, the properties of materials can differ significantly from those of their bulk counterparts. The present study applies the focused ion beam (FIB) tool to the characterization of nanoscale structures for scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The strength of this method is its ability to manufacture samples that cannot be produced using traditional means. The films of nanoparticles examined here are examples of such systems; the films are found to be not fully dense, composed of chemically heterogeneous areas and mechanically different from the substrate. Distinct advantages of the application of the FIB for characterization of nanoscale structures are highlighted for several nanoparticle structures. This successful application of FIB techniques provides a pathway to integrate the study of nanoscale production techniques and their resulting structure–property relationships. |
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| Keywords: | FIB focused ion beam nanoparticle sample preparation SEM SiC SiCN TEM |
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