A reliable approach to prepare brittle semiconducting materials for cross ‐sectional transmission electron microscopy

Summary Here, we present a sample preparation approach that simplifies the thinning of very brittle wide bandgap semiconducting materials in cross‐section geometry for (scanning) transmission electron microscopy. Using AlN thin films grown on sapphire and AlN substrates as case studies, we demonstrate that high‐quality samples can be routinely prepared while greatly reducing the preparation time and consumables cost. The approach removes the sample preparation barrier to studying a wide variety of materials by electron microscopy. Lay description Here we present a sample preparation approach that simplifies the thinning of very brittle wide band gap semiconducting materials in cross‐section geometry for (scanning) transmission electron microscopy. Using thin films grown on different substrates as case studies, we demonstrate that high quality samples can be routinely prepared while greatly reducing the preparation time and consumables cost. The approach removes the sample preparation barrier to studying a wide variety of materials by electron microscopy.
Source: Journal of Microscopy - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Themed Issue Paper Source Type: research