The Basics of Microtomy for Materials Science Microscopy

Extract

The common theme of most forms of thin specimen preparation for the physical sciences has been the controlled, gradual removal of material, whether by electrolytic dissolution, ion bombardment, careful mechanical dimpling or step-by-step tripod polishing. It is somewhat ironic that a “brute force” method, wherein the material is forced at a high rate against an atomically sharp diamond wedge so that an ultrathin slice, or section, is sheared, or fractured, from a ‘block’ of the material, should be viewed not only as acceptable, but with growing enthusiasm in the last several years. This process, known as ultramicrotomy, originated in life science TEM, but has been modified by materials scientists and applied to an impressive array of materials as illustrated in Table 1, culminating, perhaps, with the recent successful sectioning of diamond film.