A chemical thinning technique for the simultaneous preparation of foils for transmission electron microscopy: application to yttrium aluminium garnet

Abstract

A chemical thinning technique is described which enables the preparation of thin foils of yttrium aluminium garnet suitable for transmission electron microscopy. A unique method of disk preparation allows many foils to be thinned simultaneously, thus effectively reducing the preparation time per specimen. It also solves the problem of specimen support during thinning. The thin foils obtained are easy to handle as the thin regions are surrounded by a thicker rim of material. With suitable etchants this technique could be applied to many materials and in some cases used in preference to jet etching.