Fang Ning, Birch Ruth, Britton T Ben
Department of Materials, Imperial College London, UK.
Department of Materials, Imperial College London, UK; Department of Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Micron. 2022 Aug;159:103268. doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2022.103268. Epub 2022 Apr 6.
To provide useful materials characterization, we must prepare samples well so that we can avoid studying artefacts induced during sample preparation. This motivates us to systematically study our preparation methods. In this work, we focus on improving "broad ion beam" (BIB) polishing through a combination of consideration of the ion-sample interactions and a systematic study of options provided by commonly available broad ion beam milling machines. Our study specifically aims to optimise the preparation of zircaloy-4, which is an alloy of zirconium used in nuclear fuel cladding, and we note that this alloy is difficult to prepare with other sample preparations routes. We optimise BIB polishing to study the microstructure of the zircaloy-4 with electron microscopy based electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). To conclude our study, we provide recommendations for new users of BIB based polishing methods.
为了提供有用的材料表征，我们必须妥善制备样品，以便能够避免研究样品制备过程中产生的假象。这促使我们系统地研究我们的制备方法。在这项工作中，我们通过综合考虑离子与样品的相互作用以及对常用宽离子束铣刨机所提供选项的系统研究，致力于改进“宽离子束”（BIB）抛光。我们的研究具体旨在优化锆合金 - 4的制备，锆合金 - 4是一种用于核燃料包壳的锆合金，并且我们注意到这种合金很难通过其他样品制备途径来制备。我们优化BIB抛光以利用基于电子显微镜的电子背散射衍射（EBSD）研究锆合金 - 4的微观结构。为总结我们的研究，我们为基于BIB抛光方法的新用户提供建议。
