Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) allows atomic scale characterization of solid–solid interfaces, but has seen limited applications to solid–liquid interfaces due to the volatility of liquids in the microscope vacuum. Although cryo-electron microscopy is routinely used to characterize hydrated samples stabilized by rapid freezing, sample thinning is required to access the internal interfaces of thicker specimens. Here, we adapt cryo-focused ion beam (FIB) “lift-out,” a technique recently developed for biological specimens, to prepare intact internal solid–liquid interfaces for high-resolution structural and chemical analysis by cryo-STEM. To guide the milling process we introduce a label-free in situ method of localizing subsurface structures in suitable materials by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Monte Carlo simulations are performed to evaluate the depth-probing capability of the technique, and show good qualitative agreement with experiment. We also detail procedures to produce homogeneously thin lamellae, which enable nanoscale structural, elemental, and chemical analysis of intact solid–liquid interfaces by analytical cryo-STEM. This work demonstrates the potential of cryo-FIB lift-out and cryo-STEM for understanding physical and chemical processes at solid–liquid interfaces.

Functionalization is critical for improving mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/polymer nanocomposites. A fundamental understanding of the role of the CNT/polymer interface and bonding structure is key to improving functionalization procedures for higher mechanical performance. In this study, we investigated the effects of chemical functionalization on the nanocomposite interface at atomic resolution to provide direct and quantifiable information of the interactions and interface formation between CNT surfaces and adjacent resin molecules. We observed and compared electronic structures and their changes at the interfaces of nonfunctionalized and functionalized CNT/polymer nanocomposite samples via scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectrum imaging techniques. The results show that the state of sp2 bonding and its distribution at the CNT/resin interface can be clearly visualized through EELS mapping. We found that the functionalized CNT/polymer samples exhibited a lower fraction of sp2 bonding and a lower π*/σ* ratio compared with the nonfunctionalized cases. A good correlation between near-edge fine structures and low-loss plasmon energies was observed.

This study introduces a passive autofocus method based on image analysis calculating the Bayes spectral entropy (BSE). The method is applied to optical microscopy and together with the specific construction of the opto-mechanical unit, it allows the analysis of large samples with complicated surfaces without subsampling. This paper will provide a short overview of the relevant theory of calculating the normalized discrete cosine transform when analyzing obtained images, in order to find the BSE measure. Furthermore, it will be shown that the BSE measure is a strong indicator, helping to determine the focal position of the optical microscope. To demonstrate the strength and robustness of the microscope system, tests have been performed using a 1951 USAF test pattern resolution chart determining the in focus position of the microscope. Finally, this method and the optical microscope system is applied to analyze an optical grating (100 lines/mm) demonstrating the detection of the focal position. The paper concludes with an outlook of potential applications of the presented system within quality control and surface analysis.

Multi-element electrostatic aperture lens systems are widely used to control electron or charged particle beams in many scientific instruments. By means of applied voltages, these lens systems can be operated for different purposes. In this context, numerous methods have been performed to calculate focal properties of these lenses. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) classification method is utilized to determine the focused/unfocused charged particle beam in the image point as a function of lens voltages for multi-element electrostatic aperture lenses. A data set for training and testing of ANN is taken from the SIMION 8.1 simulation program, which is a well known and proven accuracy program in charged particle optics. Mean squared error results of this study indicate that the ANN classification method provides notable performance characteristics for electrostatic aperture zoom lenses.

AlN/SiOx nanocomposite coatings fabricated by differential pumping cosputtering (DPCS) were investigated by analytical electron microscopy. The DPCS system consists of two halves of a Chamber, A and B, for radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering deposition of different materials, and a substrate holder that rotates through the chambers. Al and SiO2 were sputtered in gas environments with a flow mixture of N2 and Ar gases at RF power of 200 W in the Al Chamber A and a flow of Ar gas at RF powers of 49 W in the SiO2 Chamber B. The substrates of (001) Si wafers heated at 250°C were rotated for 1,080 min at 3 rpm and alternately deposited by AlN and SiO2. AlN columnar crystals grew at a rate of ~0.3 nm/revolution preferentially along the hexagonal [0001] axis. Amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiOx), deposited at a rate of ~0.2 nm/revolution, was coagulated preferentially along the boundaries between the AlN columns and also the interfaces between the subgrains within the AlN columns. The a-SiOx played an important role in the increase in mechanical hardness of the AlN/SiOx composite coating by disturbing deformation of AlN crystal lattices.

To eliminate the effect of subjective factors during manually determining the pearlite spheroidization grade of steel by analysis of optical metallography images, a novel method combining image mining and artificial neural networks (ANN) is proposed. The four co-occurrence matrices of angular second moment, contrast, correlation, and entropy are adopted to objectively characterize the images. ANN is employed to establish a mathematical model between the four co-occurrence matrices and the corresponding spheroidization grade. Three materials used in coal-fired power plants (ASTM A315-B steel, ASTM A335-P12 steel, and ASTM A355-P11 steel) were selected as the samples to test the validity of our proposed method. The results indicate that the accuracies of the calculated spheroidization grades reach 99.05, 95.46, and 93.63%, respectively. Hence, our newly proposed method is adequate for automatically detecting the pearlite spheroidization grade of steel using optical metallography.

In recent years, an increasing number of studies utilizing in situ liquid and/or gaseous cell scanning/transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM) have been reported. Because of the difficulty in the preparation of suitable specimens, these environmental S/TEM studies have been generally limited to studies of nanoscale structured materials such as nanoparticles, nanowires, or sputtered thin films. In this paper, we present two methodologies which have been developed to facilitate the preparation of electron-transparent samples from conventional bulk metals and alloys for in situ liquid/gaseous cell S/TEM experiments. These methods take advantage of combining sequential electrochemical jet polishing followed by focused ion beam extraction techniques to create large electron-transparent areas for site-specific observation. As an example, we illustrate the application of this methodology for the preparation of in situ specimens from a cold-rolled Type 304 austenitic stainless steel sample, which was subsequently examined in both 1 atm of air as well as fully immersed in a H2O environment in the S/TEM followed by hyperspectral imaging. These preparation techniques can be successfully applied as a general procedure for a wide range of metals and alloys, and are suitable for a variety of in situ analytical S/TEM studies in both aqueous and gaseous environments.

The microstructural evolution of a 2101 lean duplex stainless steel (DSS) during isothermal aging from room temperature to 470 °C was investigated using thermoelectric power (TEP) measurements to follow the kinetics, atom probe tomography, and transmission electron microscopy. Despite the low Ni, Cr, and Mo contents, the lean DSS was sensitive to α–α′ phase separation and Ni–Mn–Si–Al–Cu clustering at intermediate temperatures. The time–temperature pairs characteristic of the early stages of ferrite decomposition were determined from the TEP kinetics. Considering their composition and locations, the clusters are most likely G phase precursors.

A new approach is presented to introduce the fine structure of core-loss excitations into the electron energy-loss spectra of ionization edges by Monte Carlo simulations based on an optical oscillator model. The optical oscillator strength is refined using the calculated electron energy-loss near-edge structure by density functional theory calculations. This approach can predict the effects of multiple scattering and thickness on the fine structure of ionization edges. In addition, effects of the fitting range for background removal and the integration range under the ionization edge on signal-to-noise ratio are investigated.

Scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) through-focus imaging (TFI) has been used to determine the three-dimensional atomic structure of Bi segregation-induced brittle Cu grain boundaries (GBs). With TFI, it is possible to observe single Bi atom distributions along Cu [001] twist GBs using an aberration-corrected STEM operating at 200 kV. The depth resolution is ~5 nm. Specimens with GBs intentionally inclined with respect to the microscope’s optic axis were used to investigate Bi segregant atom distributions along and through the Cu GB. It was found that Bi atoms exist at most once per Cu unit cell along the GB, meaning that no continuous GB film is present. Therefore, the reduced fracture toughness of this particular Bi-doped Cu boundary would not be caused by fracture of Bi–Bi bonds.

A method is proposed to determine the effective detector area for energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometers (EDS). Nowadays, detectors are available for a wide range of nominal areas ranging from 10 up to 150 mm2. However, it remains in most cases unknown whether this nominal area coincides with the “net active sensor area” that should be given according to the related standard ISO 15632, or with any other area of the detector device. Moreover, the specific geometry of EDS installation may further reduce a given detector area. The proposed method can be applied to most scanning electron microscope/EDS configurations. The basic idea consists in a comparison of the measured count rate with the count rate resulting from known X-ray yields of copper, titanium, or silicon. The method was successfully tested on three detectors with known effective area and applied further to seven spectrometers from different manufacturers. In most cases the method gave an effective area smaller than the area given in the detector description.