Engineering the Future of Materials Science Whether designing new metals and alloys, composites, ceramics, or cementitious materials, characterization techniques play a critical role in establishing the process-structure-property relationships that define these materials’ performance. Explore the latest microscopy methods from ZEISS, and how they are helping researchers better understand their materials across lengthscales, through dimensions, and under stimulus.

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Liberty University has a relatively new and small engineering program… a lot of this [characterization equipment] is new to the university. It’s something we’re incorporating more and moreinto the curriculum.​ So when I’m thinking in terms of how to apply in situ testing, I’m often looking at a reality where most of the students are probably new to SEM in general – and then on top of that needing to learn in situ testing is really important but also [needs to be] manageable.

We employed LabDCT – laboratory diffraction contrast tomography. It’s a 3D nondestructive technique, which allows us to really capture the full picture of the microstructure. And by being nondestructive, we can also track microstructural evolution through time steps [of grain coarsening] … and try to figure out what triggers abnormal grain growth.

Across many grains and many indents, I can now observe [with controlled ECCI on a ZEISS SEM] each of these indents with their dislocation structures around them, and in this way obtain much better statistics than from a single experiment. So I can separate what is really systematic behavior of dislocations and what is stochastic behavior. Furthermore, I can investigate effects across different grain orientations or proximity to grain boundaries.

Optical inspection is very fast, and you can quickly go through your sample and identify regions of interest. Then when the sample comes to the electron microscope, perhaps even with a different operator, they don’t need to use some convoluted map or disjointed or manually annotated images but rather can navigate directly in the ZEN Connect environment to find the regions of interest and drive directly to them with the SEM.

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• Characterize the volumetric 3D morphology and microstructure of your engineering materials. Gain insight into the complex internal arrangement of particles, voids, cracks, phases, and grains without destroying your sample.
• GeminiSEM delivers effortless imaging, producing sub-nanometer images below 1 kV without an immersion lens. Discover the latest innovations in electron optics paired with a new chamber design to provide an excellent combination of image quality, usability and flexibility.
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• Save time in metallographic investigations with the inverted design. Leverage full motorization, various contrast methods, and dedicated software modules for all metallographic structure analysis tasks.
• The universal software to operate any ZEISS optical or electron microscope for materials analysis. Perform exactly the microscopy workflows you need and navigate seamlessly across different lengthscales and instruments.
• The Sigma family combines FE-SEM technology with an excellent user experience. Perform your materials characterization with high contrast low kV imaging, flexible analytics options, and thermomechanical in situ experiments.
• Zoom seamlessly from overview to the smallest details - with a large free working distance and a single objective. Quickly and easily stitch large tile-images at low to medium magnification with impressive double resolution. Accommodate irregular or highly topographic sample geometries.
• The one instrument that does everything you need for optical materials analysis. Combine all essential contrast modalities with measurement of 3D surface topography and roughness. Save time on your workflow as there is no need to change microscopes.