Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Plan view TEM sample preparation for non-continuous and delaminating thin films

L Weaver1

  • 1Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Microscopy Research and Technique
|March 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary

Preparing thin films for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can be challenging. This study presents a simple epoxy stabilization and ion milling method for creating electron-transparent TEM samples from delaminated or discontinuous films.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Designing Granular Consent Tools for Sensitive Health Data: Challenges, User Needs, and Stakeholder Guidance.

Applied clinical informatics·2026
Same author

User-centered design of a patient-generated health data mobile application for primary care visits for older adults with chronic pain.

JAMIA open·2026
Same author

Plastic Type and Condition Have Minimal Impact on Associated Marine Biofilm Communities.

Environmental microbiology·2025
Same author

Intracorporeal or extracorporeal anastomosis after minimally invasive right colectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Techniques in coloproctology·2023
Same author

Thermal resilience of ensilicated lysozyme <i>via</i> calorimetric and <i>in vivo</i> analysis.

RSC advances·2022
Same author

Plastics and the microbiome: impacts and solutions.

Environmental microbiome·2021

Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Nanotechnology
  • Analytical Chemistry

Background:

  • Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) requires electron-transparent samples for analysis.
  • Preparing plan view samples, especially discontinuous or delaminated films, is often difficult.
  • Existing methods may be time-consuming or require specialized equipment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a straightforward method for preparing plan view thin film samples for TEM.
  • To address challenges associated with delaminated or non-continuous film samples.
  • To provide a fast and accessible sample preparation technique for TEM analysis.

Main Methods:

  • Film stabilization using epoxy resin.
  • Transfer of stabilized film to an aperture grid.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Ion milling to achieve electron transparency.

    • Main Results:

    • Successfully prepared electron-transparent plan view samples from challenging film types.
    • The epoxy stabilization prevents sample loss during preparation.
    • Ion milling effectively thins the film to electron transparency.

    Conclusions:

    • The described epoxy stabilization and ion milling technique is a simple and fast method for TEM sample preparation.
    • This technique is suitable for delaminated and non-continuous thin films.
    • It utilizes standard equipment available in most TEM laboratories.