AVS 47th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Tuesday Sessions
       Session MI-TuP

Paper MI-TuP3
Preparation of Cross-sectional TEM Specimens of Obliquely Deposited Magnetic Thin Films on a Flexible Tape

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall C & D

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: E.G. Keim, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Authors: E.G. Keim, University of Twente, The Netherlands
M.D. Bijker, University of Twente, The Netherlands
J.C. Lodder, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Correspondent: Click to Email
Specimen preparation is an essential part of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). In general, if one is interested in interface and/or film properties one should prepare a TEM specimen in cross-section. Upon surveying the literature, no recipe is provided for the preparation of TEM cross-sections of Metal Sputtered (MS) or Metal Evaporated (ME) magnetic thin films on polymer substrates. Various private communications in the field@footnote 1,2@ reinforce our impression that no adequate preparation procedure for this class of materials is available at present, although proper quality TEM images of ME tapes in cross-section have been published previously@footnote 3-9@ without an adequate description of TEM specimen preparation though. TEM cross-sections of MS or ME tapes pose several unique problems during preparation. In this paper we will present a recipe for making cross-sectional TEM specimens which is especially benificial for brittle metal layers even on polymer base films, resulting in large homogeneous electron transparent areas and leaving the very fragile polymer tape substrate and glue layer completely intact. Our recipe proves to be a good alternative to the use of a microtome. Apart from the sample preparation method also some details of the deposition technique will be elucidated. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ J. Jodge and Peng Tang, Private communication (1999), Quantum Corp., USA.,@footnote 2@ H. te Lintelo, Private communication (1999), IST Corp., Belgium.,@footnote 3@ S. Honodera, H. Kondo, and T. Kawana, MRS Bulletin. 21(9), 35 (1996).,@footnote 4@ H. Ho, G. Gau, and G. Thomas, J. of Appl. Phys. 65(8) , 3161 (1989).,@footnote 5@ K. Sato, K. Chiba, T. Ito, T. Ssaki, and J. Hokkyo, J. of Appl. Phys. 69(8), 4736 (1991).,@footnote 6@ J. Hokkyo, T. Suzuki, K. Chiba, K. Sato, Y. Arisaka, T. Sasaki, and Y. Ebine, JMMM 120, 281 (1993).,@footnote 7@ P. ten Berge, L. Abelmann, J. C. Lodder, A. Schrader, and S. Luitjens., J. of The Magnetics Society of Japan 18(S1), 295 (1994).,@footnote 8@ M.D. Bijker, E.M. Visser, and J.C. Lodder, Tribology International 31(9), 553 (1998).,@footnote 9@ H.J. Richter, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 29(1), 21 (1993).