Lecturers: V. Morandi (CNR-IMM Researcher) and F. Liscio (CNR-IMM Researcher)
Duration: 12 hours in March and April
Programme: This course will provide an overview on several experimental techniques to characterize the structure and the morphology of surfaces and interfaces and nanostructures by using electrons and X-ray sources as probes. Introduction to the physics of surfaces, interfaces, nanostructures and growth will be held. Detailed lectures on the techniques to analyze them will follow.
Concerning electrons, this will include Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) based techniques. For SEM, basic imaging formation mechanisms will be discussed with both secondary and backscattered electrons for morphological as well as compositional analyses, together with more advanced techniques like low energy Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) and Focused Ion Beam (FIB). For TEM, the image formation mechanisms will be described as well as the basics of electron diffraction, high resolution imaging, high-energy STEM and Z-contrast, as well as spectroscopic techniques like Electron Energy Loss (EELS) and Energy Dispersive X-rays (EDX) Spectroscopies.
Concerning X-rays, this will include grazing incidence X-ray diffraction for exploring the crystal structure of nano-structured films, surfaces diffraction, X-ray reflectivity for detecting thickness, roughness and density of each layer composing multilayer films, grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering for enabling studies of nanoscale objects deposited on surfaces, thin and ultra-thin layers of nanomaterials, or nano-structured surfaces.
Moreover, the exploitation of both X-rays and electrons based techniques for in-situ characterization of dynamic processes (such as growth, phase transition, crystallization, electrochemical processes, etc etc) will be elucidated.