Overcoming Challenges in Material Science Testing with the use of Large Specimen SEM Analysis

Extract

One of the most oft-confronted challenges in materials science, when using scanning electron microscopy, is the limitation of the size of the sample being examined, as well as the analysis application planned. Normally, only small samples in the order of ten to a hundred millimetres in diameter may be investigated. In addition, until now, conventional high-load fatigue testing inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) seemed impossible. Nevertheless, SEM testing is a very valuable method in the fields of material and biological science as well as in quality control and failure analysis. For many technological interesting applications, conventional scanning electron microscopy is not possible because the specimens that need to be investigated cannot be destroyed for the SEM investigations for one of several reasons. It maybe that the specimen must be kept whole so that it can be returned to a production line or perhaps the specimen is an object of historic and/or artistic interest and value.