Advanced Nano-Scale Metrology for the Characterization of Ceramic Materials in the Scanning Electron Microscope

Abstract:

With the proliferation of several types and classes of high performance ceramic materials, the screening, evaluation and integration of new materials into structures and devices require a new and more effective approach. Evaluation on the nano-scale of the mechanical characteristics of new ceramic materials requires multiple complementary metrology tools. We report here about an advanced metrology tool, cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy, which has a potential to rapidly screen and evaluate residual stress characteristics in advanced ceramic materials and structures. Nano-scale stress measurements are made in situ into an integrated metrology vacuum chamber in a field-emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM). Complementing this tool, we also describe a new image analysis based on CL emission for fast screening and ranking of domain structures in ferroelastic ceramics. The end result of this paper is to show how crystallographic and mechanical characteristics of ceramics can be quantitatively characterized in a hybrid device combining electro-stimulated imaging and spectroscopic outputs.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 606)
• Pages: 93-101
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.606.93
• Online since: October 2008
• Authors: Giuseppe Pezzotti, Atsuo Matsutani, Maria Chiara Munisso, Wen Liang Zhu
• Keywords: Cathodoluminescence, Ceramic Material, Domain Texture, Stress Visualization

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