SEM sample

preparation
5th CEMM workshop

Maja Koblar, Sc. Eng. Physics

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Outline

• Before SEM characterization

• Preparation of bulk (soft and hard) material
• Preparation of powders
• Mounting: holders and adhesives
• Coating: sputtering and evaporation
• Thin film growth

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 Before SEM characterization
Clean and dry (no outgassing). Definition of dry sample

Some particles have natural

tendency to absorb moisture from wet
regul environment. liquid

For biological samples – „critical

drying“ to remove liquid without
damaging the specimen.

Always check recent published research papers

to check on current techniques being used.
Liquid: paint, milk, mud
Wet: fresh leaf, fresh concreate, a fly

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Sample as small as possible
Less is more! The same goes for SEM samples
Why?
• Less pumping, less
outgassing.
• Powder need special
handling, otherwise they
may get loose and fly off
the holder.
• Magnetic samples also
need experienced SEM
Image: providr.com Image: more.com
operators, or damage on
the SEM is possible.

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Bulk: hard material
Composites, metals, rocks, ceramics, glass,…

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 Surface observation of the material „as it is“

Use solvents depending on

Dry and clean the sample.

Bulk material
Surface
Hard samples Imaging SE and BSE
topography (SE) Some samples are smooth
and have a mirror surface.

Surface observation of the

material „as it is“
Mounting securely on a SEM stub

SEM coating etching

Make a path Avoid microanalysis.
If conductive, use to ground.
high voltage, if
Make pathway for e- on the nonconductive use
adhesive layer and on the sample: low voltages or a SEM SEM coating
variable pressure
SEM.

SEM
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 Make sure that the selected
Cutting part is representing the whole
sample.

Mounting , embedding in resin…

Bulk material
Hard samples grinding

Surface observation and open

polishing
surface of the sample´s inner
structure
(for BSE, EDS, WDS, EBSD)
cleaning, mounting on a SEM stub

SEM coating etching

SEM SEM coating

SEM
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 Bulk material
Hard samples

Fractures or cross sections,

exposure by breaking, cleaving,
snapping and pulling.
Images: Dense and highly textured coatings obtained by aerosol deposition method
from Ti3SiC2 powder: Comparison to a dense material sintered by Spark Plasma
Sintering J. Henon et al. / Journal of the European Ceramic Society 35 (2015)

Image: Jeol
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Bulk: soft and firm material
Biological samples, paper, polymers, foams, gels, wood, food, …

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 Fixation stops cellular processes and aims to
preserve the specimens as close as possible to
fixation its natural state.

chemical vapour
Bulk material Images: Dunn school

Soft and firm material

critical point drying chemically dry freeze dry

Surface observation – as it is
The sample is fixated, dyhidrated and dry

Mounting on a SEM stub

Images: Dunn school

SEM coating etching

SEM SEM coating

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 Bulk material
Soft material

Surface observation of samples

inner sturture, cross sections
and thin sections Image: embalmers.com

Using: Scalpels, FIB,

Ultramicrotome, …

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SCAN
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Powders
Powders, colloids and magnetic particles

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 Particles diameter > 10 mm:
• Use carbon holders or aluminium holders
• Place a drop of carbon paint and spread the
drop to form a layer
Powders • Wait for the paint to evaporate to near
Large particles: dryness
Diameter above 10 mm. • Collect a small amount of sample using a
make sure that it is representable.
• While the paint is still tacky, place the
particles:
• With forceps and binocular microscope
• Droop them – the momentum from falling will
embed the particles into the paint
• Gently tab the stub on the table to remove
excess sample.
• Blow away excess sample using air duster.
• If non conductive, use low voltage or variable
pressure SEM or coat the sample.

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 10 mm > particle diameter > 5 μm:
• Use carbon holders or aluminium holders
• Place a double sided carbon / copper tape
Powders • Collect a small amount of sample using a
transfer pipet, make sure that it is
Small particles: representable.
Diameter between 5 μm and • Apply a thin layer of powder on the tape.
10 mm.
• Gently tab the stub on the table to remove
excess sample.
• Blow away excess sample using air duster.
• If non conductive, use low voltage or variable
pressure SEM or coat the sample.

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Image: Jeol
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 Particle diameter < 5 μm:
• Use carbon holders or aluminium holders
• Add small amount of powder in solvent,
make sure that is representable (particle
Powders settling).
Smaller particles: • Put it in the ultrasound to disperse the
Diameter below 5 μm particles well.
• Place a small drop of suspension on a flat
surface, again make sure that is
representable (particle settling).
• Wait till it dries.
• Coat the sample with carbon to provide an
additional adhesion.

Dispersion can also bi made with Freon. The faster the

solution evaporates, the less particle aggregation will
occur. So a lamp can help but take care not to damage
the organic or biological samples.

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 BSE imaging:
• The powder should be hot-mounted in resin
or cold-mounted (embedded) in epoxy resin,
Powders polymerised
• Polished to a smooth mirror surface
• If non conductive, use low voltage or variable
pressure SEM or coat the sample.
• Do not use silver paint, due to the size of the
silver particles and the high Z

Magnetic materials require special care!

• Magnetic materials can be investigated, but
care is needed so that the powder is not
attracted to the objective lens pole piece
where it could disrupt the electron optics.

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 (Image: IOM)

Ion beam
Cleaning or etching

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Cleaning

• ion etching

• bench-top instrument
• broad beam - 1 cm2 area
• Beam energy: 1 – 10 keV

• For EBSD measurement:

(Image: spectroscopynow)
• 60 ° -70° tilt
• best results obtained with low kV (2 kV - 3 kV)

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Sample preparation tools
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Holders
Mounting stubs are made of aluminium, carbon or epoxy.
• Aluminium:
• has good conductivity, low cost, easy shaping
• for SE and BSE (topography and compositional)
• for semi-quantitative (standardless) EDS

• Carbon:
• for particles and powder
• for EDS, BSE

• “made with epoxy”:

• The upper surface polished
• for BSE, ESD, WDS

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Adhesive
Must firmly fix the sample (no mechanical drift when tilted or thermal
drift when irradiated by the beam).
Must be vacuum compatible and no outgassing.
• No super glues – outgassing

• Double sided tape

• Carbon or copper

• Fast drying paint

• Carbon or silver

• Plastic conductive carbon cement

• For irregular shapes

• Two component silver filed epoxy

• Needs to be heated!

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 Conductive
coating

charging leads to variations in

surface potential:
Deflected secondary e-
Increase secondary emission e-
Deflection of electron beam
Spurious x-ray signal

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Coating the sample – Balzers

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Coating the sample - PECS

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 EVAPORATION
The source is heated directly or
indirectly until the point is
reached where it efficiently
sublimes or evaporates.
The atoms or molecules start to
leave the surface of the source
and travel in more or less straight
path until they reach another
surface (substrate, wall).
Since these surfaces are at lower
T, the molecules will transfer
there energy to the substrate,
lower their T and condense.
Other than pressure and
temperature, the placement of
the heater, source and substrate
are important factors

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Vapor pressure of elements
Below the vapour pressure surface evaporation is faster than condensation,
above it is slower.
The vapor pressure of any substance increases non-linearly with temperature
according to the Clausius- Clapyeron equation:
𝑑𝑃 Δ𝐻(𝑇)
= P – pressure,
𝑑𝑇 TΔ𝑉 T – temperature,
H – entropy,
V – specific volume

Mass evaporation rate:

𝑀 𝑔
Γ𝑒 = 5,84 ∙ 10−2 𝑃
𝑇 𝑣 𝑐𝑚2 𝑠
M – molar mass
Pv – vapor pressure

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 Evaporation rate for aluminium
• Al: M=27 g/mol

Pv= 10-7 bar = 10-4 Torr → 980°C:

27 𝑔 𝑔
Γ𝑒 = 5,84 ∙ 10−2 10−4 2 = 𝟗, 𝟔𝟗𝟒 ∙ 𝟏𝟎−𝟕
𝟗𝟖𝟎 𝑐𝑚 𝑠 𝑐𝑚2 𝑠

Pv= 10-5 bar = 10-2 Torr → 1220°C:

27 𝑔 𝑔
Γ𝑒 = 5,84 ∙ 10−2 10−2 = 𝟖, 𝟔𝟖𝟖 ∙ 𝟏𝟎 −𝟓
𝟏𝟐𝟐𝟎 𝑐𝑚2 𝑠 𝑐𝑚2 𝑠

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 Sources of impurity

What can effect film purity?

• Contamination of source
materials- use high purity of (Image: wiki)

source material
• Contamination of the heater -
use material with low diffusion
• Residual gas in the chamber-
better vacuum, higher deposition
rate
(Image: lasp)

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 SPUTTERING
Instead of using heat to eject
material from a source, we can
bombard them with high
speed particles.

The sputtering gas bombards

the target and sputters off the
material we would like to
deposit.

Once ejected, these atoms (or

molecules) can travel to a
substrate and deposit as a film.

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 Sputtering yield – S [atoms/ions]
Number of ejected (sputtered) atoms, molecules from target divided
with the incident particle, ions
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠
𝑆=
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠

S depends on:
1. type of target atom and the binding energy
2. relative masses (of ions and atoms)
3. angle of incidence of ions and kinetic energy

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 Targets on SCD and PECS

Magnetron target (Au, Pt) demonstrating racetrack erosion profile PECS targets (Cr, Au/Pd, C and Pt)

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 Physical
mechanisms of
thin film growth

(Video: Barna, 1967)

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 Thickness measurment
Stylus method –
Gravimetric method
profilometer or AFM
• Measure substrate weight before
and after coating • A stylus is drawn across a step in
• Calculate thickness from known the film
substrate dimensions • Scratching can occur
• Not real-time but surprisingly • Needs calibration
accurate • Can do repeated measurements
• Not real-time

(Image: wiki)

(Image: l-w)

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 Thickness measurment
• Quartz crystal monitors - Quartz
oscillator
• Specific oscillation frequency
• Expose one side of wafer to the
vapor
• As the vapor coats the wafer the
oscillation frequency changes
• Different parameters, proper
calibration, quartz quality and
proper usage
• If 6MHz oscillator is used –
nanogram changes can be
measured in turn that means to (Image: lesker)

0,1A

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What material should I coat with?

• Au: standard for sputtering, easy

to coat, inert, stable under
electron beam
• Au/Pd: all the advantages of Au
bus smaller grain size
• Pt: highly inert, very conductive
but large grain size
• Cr: smallest grain size, but oxides
quickly
• C: best for X-ray microanalysis
and EBSD

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Influence of the Coating Material to the Quality

0.4 nm nominal film thickness (magnetron sputter) coatings produced at room temperature at low vacuum conditions

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TEM coating

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Take home information
• Before SEM characterization
• Check recent published papers
• Preparation of bulk (soft and hard) material
• Think what you want to image (surface, fractures,…) and prepare the sample
• Preparation of powders
• Make sure that there are firmly attached
• Mounting: holders and adhesives
• Different holders (carbon, aluminum)
• Different adhesives, always wait for the adhesives to dry, check if it has to be
heated…
• Coating: sputtering and evaporation
• Always make ground
• Choose the coating depending on the imaging and sample, for BSE use carbon,
for biological specimens use higher Z.
• Thin film growth
• Different ways how the film growths
• Be sure that the surface image is not the coating, use some uncoated sample to
check

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Slovene Society for Microscopy
http://mikroskopsko-drustvo.si/
www.facebook.com/SloveneSocietyForMicroscopy/

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