A New Method for Preparing Cross-sectional TEM Specimens

A new method for preparing cross-sectional TEM specimens was introduced in detail taking a film growing on silicon substrate as an example. First stacking the rectangular slices into block, and then cutting the stacking block with low speed diamond wheel to get thin stacked sheet. Secondly pasting the thin stacked sheet and a silicon slice on an organic glass specimen column at the same time. Thirdly grinding and polishing the specimen, and confirming the thickness of the specimen by observing the color of the silicon slice. Finally taking down the specimen, pasting a brass ring on it, cutting it into a disc and ion milling to complete the specimen preparation. The produced new cross-sectional TEM specimens preparation method could thin down the specimens only by manual grinding to get the thickness which could be ion milling directly. Therefore, this preparation method could not only simplify the preparing process, but also get larger area for TEM observation.