2. Sample preparation

Thin slide preparation is a key aspect of transmission electron microscopy. As a rule, it requires a fair amount of patience and know-how. In the region of interest, the sample should be around 200 nm thick for conventional microscopy, or even 5 to 40 nm for atomic resolution techniques. In most cases, final thinning is performed on small 3 mm (sometimes 2.3 mm) diameter pellets, taken from 0.10 to 0.20 mm thick slides.

The first step is to cut the material into a blade. If the sample is large enough, slices 0.2 to 0.4 mm thick can be cut directly, using a diamond disk saw or electroerosion [9][10] . In the next step, these slices are abraded on both sides using fine-grain metallographic polishing paper, to a...