TEM specimen preparation techniques

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful tool for the investigation of the microstructure of materials, providing crystallographic information and composition at the nanometer scale.So, samples should be transparent to the electron beam. This article has been provided in two parts. In first part TEM sample preparation techniques for different classes of metals, alloys and multilayered coatings are discussed. The second part, describes TEM sample preparation techniques for nanomaterials and composites with illustrative examples. Also, site-specific TEM specimen preparation using focused ion beam (FIB) milling will be presented in part 2.