TEM is the best. The high resolution SEM will also work.




--- On Wed, 11/4/09, Evelyn B  wrote:


From: Evelyn B 
Subject: [mems-talk] Crystal Size Calculation
To: "General MEMS discussion" , "Evelyn Benabe"

Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 12:01 PM


Hi all,

I will be depositing BST60/40 films on MgO and Alumina substrates and
investigate the effects of annealing on crystal size.  As a result, I am
trying to determine the best way of calculating the crystal size.  My
original plan was to use XRD to calculate crystal size using Scherrer's
formula but I was told that this is not very accurate because both strain
and crystal size get affected by annealing and may both affect the peak
width making it hard to distinguish which effects are due to strain and
which are due to crystal size change.  I have also heard that TEM is
supposed to be more accurate than XRD for this calculation because the
actual crystal size can be measured instead of estimated from XRD.

Can any one comment on this or provide a good reference for me to use?  I am
trying to see if I should really use the TEM technique as sample preparation
is a very time consuming process.  Thanks to all,

--
EVELYN BENABE