A specimen preparation technique for plane-view studies of surfaces using transmission electron microscopy

A method for preparing plane-view transmission electron microscope (TEM) samples is presented. With this inclined pseudo-plane-view technique, the undisturbed surface of the sample can be studied in plane view. Thus, nanostructures on the surface of a substrate can be studied with TEM in much the same way as with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), but in transmission at a much higher spatial resolution and with the opportunity of performing nanoscale diffraction. A glued sandwich with two surfaces facing each other was thinned at a low angle relative to the surfaces. The resultant construction contained thin wedges of the surfaces upon which it was possible to do TEM analysis. SEM analysis before and TEM analysis after such sample preparation was found to be consistent.