Fabrication and Characterization of Materials

Abstract

The impact of materials science is ubiquitous in all branches of science and engineering. The analysis of the structure–property relationship in a material aids in understanding its physical and chemical properties. Fabrication of materials has seen many technological developments in synthesizing high-quality materials from bulk to nanoscale. This chapter discusses some commonly used synthesis techniques that include Czochralski growth, chemical vapor transport, sputtering, and pulsed laser deposition methods and gives an overview of the experimental construction and operation principles of different synthesis techniques to make an array of material systems at different length scales (centimeter to nanometer). This chapter also introduces the art of making nanostructures on as-grown materials and discusses the pros and cons of photo and electron-beam lithography techniques. The physical constraints on the material design present challenges as well as opportunities for material characterization. This chapter discusses the specific role of electron microscopy techniques to analyze topological information, structural composition, and electronic properties of materials. The experimental construction and the working principles of scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy are briefly discussed.