Microscopy techniques for materials science potx

[...]... to a materials problem can be formulated Part III illustrates other experimental (mainly optical) techniques in materials science Chapter 5 deals with variations on a theme: alternative optical and EM techniques, which are proving important nowadays Finally, Chapter 6 covers, briefly, acoustic and a few other techniques being used successfully in materials science research The main objective for computer-assisted... strains are propagated from 8 Microscopy techniques for materials science Figure 1.3 (a) After digitisation of the image, many different processes may be used to transform/modify the image in order to detect linear features, alter the contrast to make features more visible or to distort the image for startling visual effects (b) Stereology seeks to define unbiased methods for estimating feature characteristics... within the department) and Mat Harper for his input to the final case study on 3D elastic stiffness constants and the ultrasonic testrig For our recent foray into the X-ray microtomography research, my special thanks go to Nishanth Gopinathan and Dr Jia, the Institute for Particle Science and Engineering, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, for their assistance with, and access... sample (for example in fibre-reinforced composites) could cause serious problems for the interpretation of the true structure Thirdly, a suitable surface finish for the optical technique selected may require more detailed preparation of the surface than simply polishing – etching and sputtering might be required, for example! Finally, it is one thing to interpret the 2D cross-section 4 Microscopy techniques. .. dimensions to be investigated therefore now covers nanoscale through the microscale and on to the mesoscale regime, as shown in Fig 1.1 The impact of glass fibre and carbon fibre reinforced composites on the development of high strength and low weight materials over the past 50 years has generated a need for more computer-assisted microscopy Now the use of textiles as the reinforcing component in polymer... for different techniques of measurement to be found in Parts II and III Since the time of Lord Rayleigh in the nineteenth century until the mid/latetwentieth century, it was assumed that light microscopical techniques would never beat the resolution limit dictated by the wavelength of the light illumination used (see Section 1.4.1) Only in the past twenty years has it been 6 Microscopy techniques for. .. operator errors (for example when counting objects or estimating lengths of objects) The 3D interpretation of the 2D image data is also enhanced by stereological methods Interaction of EM radiation with materials 7 Figure 1.2 The current limits to spatial resolution for the different techniques discussed in this book: CLSM (confocal laser scanning microscopy) , SAM (scanning acoustic microscopy) , NMR... over the years On the practical side of microscopy, my special thanks go to Dr Vyvyan Howard (University of Liverpool) for introducing me to the mysteries and potential of stereology, Dr Torsten Mattfeldt for collaborating with us on a test for isotropy within fibre-reinforced composites and Dr Alan Entwistle (Ludwig Institute and the Royal Microscopical Society) for his many useful discussions and invaluable... distributions of the stiffness constant values 398 399 400 401 402 403 Tables 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Different types of waves and their velocities in materials Refractive indices of materials (at wavelength of 550 nm) Sign conventions for thin lens formula Depth of field values for different objectives Working distances of different objective lenses 13 15 51 58 64 2.1 2.2 2.3 89 90 91 2.4 The representation of the... Header of a Microsoft WindowsTM bitmap 134 3.1 Internal angles for three fibres 197 4.1 4.2 Working distances of typical CLSM objectives Refractive indices of polymer matrices 246 285 Part I Basic principles 1 Interaction of EM radiation with materials 1.1 Introduction It might be thought that the use of optical microscopes for materials science research was self-evident and the last thing that was .