Electron and ion microscopy techniques allow one to obtain high spatial resolution images and spectroscopic information of both the surface and internal structure of nanostructured materials. In this tutorial, I will present a broad overview of the basic physical principles that underly the techniques of scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beam microscope and transmission electron microscopy, and present copious examples from both my own work and the literature regarding how these techniques can applied to understand processing / structure / property relationships in nanostructured materials. The intent of the presentation is to convey a sense of the power of the techniques and how they can impact your research. Special emphasis will be placed on the capabilities (existing and planned) in the microscopy labs of the Birck Nanotechnology Center.

Professor Eric Stach received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering from Duke University in 1992. In 1994, he received his M.S. from the University of Washington and in 1998 he received his PhD from the University of Virginia, both in Materials Science and Engineering. He joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA where he was a Materials Staff Scientist at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, and in 2003 became a Program Leader in the Metals Program, Materials Science Division. He began his career at Purdue in the School of Materials Engineering in January 2005. His research interests include high-resolution in-situ electron microscopy techniques to understand how nanometer lengths scales affect the fundamental mechanical, thermomechanical and electromechanical behavior of materials.

NCN@Purdue Student Leadership Team
Network for Computational Nanotechnology
The Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing

If you reference this work in a publication, please cite as follows:

• Stach, Eric (2006), "Electron and Ion Microscopies as Characterization Tools for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology," http://www.nanohub.org/resources/1097/.

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1. carbon nanotubes
2. devices
3. education/outreach
4. experiments
5. general tools
6. material science
7. tutorial
8. visualization