Electron-Microscopes

By September 15 back in New England, it's time to turn the heat on. Here in MidAtlantica we (the denizens of Edge City) have had some pre-autumnal coolness, though the temperatures have recently risen back into summery scale. The reason I mention these banal weather details is that they have a distinct effect on the lady-of-a-Certain-Age affliction I described in the last post here. If it gets cool, say under the temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the hot flashes get less intense and may even relent altogether.

Some of this may be due to the acupuncture and herbal remedies my acupuncturist has treated me with. Perhaps it works in combination with ambient temperature. I started the treatment in May, when it was already somewhat warm here. So much for being in "balance with Nature." If Nature cools down, so do I…maybe.

I have not had a winter without hot flashes since they began. What usually happens is that the affliction, surprised by a change in the weather, takes some time to adjust to it and then, having figured out how to torment me in cold weather, begins again. If something can break that cycle, I'm all for it.

Some older women, upon hearing that I love the summer and hot weather and never want winter, have sarcastically commented that when I got to a "Certain Age" I would welcome the colder weather and hate the warm summer temperatures. I hate to agree with these comments, so let me re-state my situation. I still love summer and hot weather, but at the moment it doesn't love me. It is possible that I might find a way to avert the periodic hourly boiling, and if so, I will gladly go back to my love of July's hot, humid, thundery days.

I really don't want to talk about this any more, so I will leave you with a famous image by the early twentieth century French artist Paul Emile Chabas. His "September Morn" scandalized prudes in New York when it was shown in a gallery window there in 1913. But it then became hugely popular and was reproduced in all manner of prints and collectibles. The unclad young lady who feels the first chill of fall as she stands in the lake has a long way to go before she is of a Certain Age.

Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) is a very useful technique to study the interfacial diffusion and reactions and the grain growth of thin films. However, the preparation of XTEM samples of thin films is tedious and challenging. Difficulties may include the delamination of films from the substrate, fracture of brittle substrates and differential milling rates of the substrate and the film. This paper describes an improved technique using a combination of tripod polishing and focused ion beam milling to prepare XTEM samples of thin films. The technique can be widely used for high-throughput production of samples having varying film and substrate properties. Two different geometries are introduced. The first one is suitable for XTEM sample preparation of most films at a high yield rate, but with a limited view area. The other geometry is able to give a larger view area and is more suitable for thicker films. The technique is illustrated by an example of the sample preparation of Fe/Pt multilayer films on SiO₂/Si substrates.