In situ Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

Project monitoring:

Diego Santa Rosa Coradini, MSc
Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.mont. Stefan Pogatscher

In situ TEM heating is a tool that aims at the analyses of very localized transformations while undertaking the environment under different thermodynamical conditions by modifying its temperature. The in situ heating is done by a microelectron mechanical system (MEMS), in our case small electrothermal chips (E-chips), where the sample can be placed for analysis. For instance, the focus are the in situ analysis of metallurgical reactions in Cu nanowires (NW), AlCu eutectics, and Al crossover alloys. Where, phase transformation and degradation effects are studied.

Figure 1. TEM-Holder with a E-chip.

Figure 2. Bright-field TEM (BFTEM) images of a Cu NW at 500 °C (a) to (g).