Materials Characterization and Analysis Collection – serie

This book was written to explain a technique that requires an understanding of many details in order to properly obtain and interpret the data obtained. It also will serve as a reference for those who need to provide SIMS data. The book has over 200 figures and the references allow one to trace development of SIMS and understand the many details of the technique.

This book discusses the use of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and scanning Auger microscopy for the characterization of a wide range of technological materials, including, metals and alloys, semiconductors, nanostructures, and insulators. Its value as a tool for high-resolution elemental imaging and compositional depth profiling is illustrated and the application of the technique for obtaining compositional information from the surfaces, interfaces, and thin film structures of technological and engineering materials is demonstrated. This volume also describes the basic physical principles of AES in simple, largely qualitative terms. Major components of typical Auger spectrometers are also described. The book discusses other types of analysis for which an Auger electron spectrometer may be used, for example, secondary electron microscopy, backscattered electron imaging, X-ray spectroscopy, as well as the relationship between AES and other analysis techniques.

Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) is a very powerful tool for characterizing various types of materials. Using a light microscope, the imaging resolution is at several hundred nanometers, and for a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at several nanometers. The imaging resolution of the TEM, however, can routinely reach several angstroms on a modem instrument. In addition, the TEM can also provide material structural information, since the electrons penetrate through the thin specimens, and chemical compositional information due to the strong electron-specimen atom interactions. This book provides a concise practical guide to the TEM user, starting from the beginner level, including upper-division undergraduates, graduates, researchers, and engineers, on how to learn TEM efficiently in a short period of time. It covers most of the areas using TEM, including the instrumentation, sample preparation, diffraction, imaging, analytical microscopy, and some newly developed advanced microscopy techniques. This book may serve as a textbook for a TEM course or workshop, or a reference book for the TEM user to improve their TEM skills.

Ellipsometry is an experimental technique for determining the thickness and optical properties of thin films. It is ideally suited for films ranging in thickness from sub-nanometer to several microns. Spectroscopic measurements have greatly expanded the capabilities of this technique and introduced its use into all areas where thin films are found: semiconductor devices, flat panel and mobile displays, optical coating stacks, biological and medical coatings, protective layers, and more. While several scholarly books exist on the topic, this book provides a good introduction to the basic theory of the technique and its common applications. The target audience is not the ellipsometry scholar, but process engineers and students of materials science who are experts in their own fields and wish to use ellipsometry to measure thin film properties without becoming an expert in ellipsometry itself.

Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, TOF-SIMS, is a highly surface sensitive analytical technique that provides information about composition with submicron lateral resolution. For select materials, TOF-SIMS provides unparalleled sensitivity along with excellent reproducibility, and as a mass spectrometric technique, it also provides excellent specificity. Of the analytical methods available, it is among the most surface sensitive, but the physical principles that underlie it are also the least understood. This volume describes the instrumentation, the physical principles behind the technique to the extent they are understood, and provides a practical approach for the interpretation of TOF-SIMS data. The use of advanced data processing methods such as multivariate statistics are described in a readily approachable manner. Given a basic background in undergraduate chemistry and physics, the book will be of use to any student with an interest in the technique.

Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) is a very powerful tool for characterizing various types of materials. Using a light microscope, the imaging resolution is at several hundred nanometers, and for a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at several nanometers. The imaging resolution of the TEM, however, can routinely reach several angstroms on a modem instrument. In addition, the TEM can also provide material structural information, since the electrons penetrate through the thin specimens, and chemical compositional information due to the strong electron-specimen atom interactions. This book provides a concise practical guide to the TEM user, starting from the beginner level, including upper-division undergraduates, graduates, researchers, and engineers, on how to learn TEM efficiently in a short period of time. Volume I covers the instrumentation, sample preparation, fundamental diffraction, imaging, analytical microscopy, and some newly developed microscopy techniques. This book may serve as a textbook for a TEM course or workshop, or a reference book for the TEM user to improve their TEM skills.

This book serves as a practical guide for applications of X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a nondestructive elemental analysis technique, to the study and understanding of archaeology. Descriptions of XRF theory and instrumentation and an introduction to field applications and practical aspects of archaeology provide new users to XRF and/or new to archaeology with a solid foundation on which to base further study. Considering recent trends within field archaeology, information specific to portable instrumentation also is provided. Discussions of qualitative and quantitative approaches and applications of statistical methods relate back to types of archaeological questions answerable through XRF analysis. Numerous examples, figures, and spectra from the authors' field work are provided including chapters specific to pigments, ceramics, glass, construction materials, and metallurgical materials.