SCANNING ELECTRON

MICROSCOPY (SEM)

Ashish Dhole
14ENPT03
M.Tech. Nano Science And Technology
UOH

OBJECTIVE: To study Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and observe various

micrographs.
INTRODUCTION:
The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is a very useful device to observe
the world in a very small scale, from microns to nano scale. SEM uses a focused
beam of electrons having very high energy that are bombarded on the sample
and creates various signals out of it. These high energy electrons interacts with
the solid sample and reflected with certain energy. According to the properties of
these scattered electrons we can analyse the sample under study. Signals
obtained from the SEM can be used to get the morphological (texture),
crystalline structures, chemical composition and orientation of the material that
the sample is made of. Data is collected from the SEM by considering a specific
area of the sample witch with help of Detectors and program are processed and
a 2D image is obtained in most of the applications. Images can be generated by
scanning areas ranging from 1cm to 5m in width in conventional SEM.
Magnification raging from 20x to 30000x can be obtained. Spatial resolution of
SEM can be from 50nm to 100nm. SEM is not only used to obtain the topographic
or morphological information, it is also used in getting the chemical composition
of the sample of the sample. This is performed by the production of the
characteristic X-rays obtained from the electron-specimen interaction. Hence, by
identifying the X-ray energies we can obtain the fundamental composition of the
sample specimen.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE:
Electrons are emitted from the electron gun with very high acceleration.
These electrons when cones in contact with the sample create various types of
signals. These signals are nothing but the scattered electrons from the sample
surface. They can be secondary electrons, back scattered electrons, auger
electrons, characteristic X-rays, etc.
These scattered electrons or signals are the captured by the detectors that
are present inside the SEM chamber. These detectors then process these signals
to obtain a 2D images or various characteristic information of the sample.
Following fig. shows the scattering of electrons from the sample surface.

ADVANTAGES:
The advantages of SEM and its uses are explained as follow:
1. Advantages
a. Electrons prove best to be used for the topographic information
b. Very clean process
c. Any kind of solid sample can be examine
d. Very high resolution
e. Very large magnification level
f.

No sample preparation required (non-conducting materials are the

exemptions)

2. Uses
a. To obtain the topographic images
b. To study sample surface in very high magnification
c. To obtain the constitutional data
d. To identify various phases in the sample
e. Identify crystallinity

OBSERVATIONS:
From the given micrographs analyse and state some observation that is
obtained.

Fig 1.
Magnification- 200x, Acc. Voltage.- 15kV,
1. From the circle 1 we can see the microspores are present on the
surface.
2. From circle 2 we can see twin boundaries present on the surface
3. From circle 3 small hole is visible

Fig 2.
Magnification- 100X, Acc. Voltage-15kV,
From the fig small surface defect can be seen. These may the small air
gap formed during moulding process call as blow off defects

Fig 3.
Magnification- 1000X, Acc. Voltage-15kV
1. Circles shown on the micrograph shows the microspores present on the
sample surface.
2. Arrow shown on the micrograph shows the twin boundaries that is
present on the sample surface.

Fig 4.

A scale bar is introduced on the micrograph such that the black scale mark is
approximately equal to 10nm

Fig 5.

Above figure show following observations:

1. It is a branched material with 6 branches originated from the same
junction
2. Every branch has 4 faces.
3. There is triangular space remained unoccupied on the junction .
4. The whole structure is placed on the material with particle diameter
less than 20nm
5. Length of each branch is approximately 70-80nm
6. Diameter of junction is about 150nm.
7. There are some tube like structure also [resent behind the structure
with diameter of about 30nm
8. From right hand image, we can see the junction is highly dense
9. The branches have relatively vey less density.

Fig 6.
Above fig shows:
1. Small cubes of side ranging from approximately 2m to 6m
2. They are stacked one by one uniformly
3. There are few unoccupied space present
4. Particle faces are not exactly square in shape there are some are
rectangular.

Fig 7.

 Fig shows
1. Atomic arrangement of carbon silicon and carbon atoms.
2. The atomic size of the silicon atom is far larger that of the carbon atom
3. All the atoms are following a particular stacking order
4. Both materials are crystalline as they are arranged in the periodic
manner
5. Arrows shows the atomic arrangement of silicon and diamond

Fig 8.
Above fig shows:
1. Periodic arrangement of the atoms
2. Micrograph shows epitaxy layers formed
3. Arrangement of atoms in various planes is shown.

CONCLUSION:
1. Scanning Electron Microscopy is Studied
2. Various micrograph were obtained from SEM
3. Different micrographs were observed and key points about the micrograpg
observation is discussed.