Surface microsurgery: taper section preparation

Surface microsurgery is the science of preparing surface layers, such as oxide scales and coatings, for characterisation of their microstructure and composition, by conventional surface analytical techniques, such as SEM, EPMA, SIMS etc. A surface microsurgery procedure often employed involves the preparation of a taper section. Using relatively simple equipment, significant improvements have been made to the precision, and thus the effectiveness, of this procedure such that production of uniform, parallel cross sections, with magnifications in excess of 1000, can be achieved readily and consistently. The procedure has enabled the detailed characterisation of 100-5000 A thick interlayers in composite coatings on both metallic and semiconductor substrates and also two-dimensional elemental analysis of micron thick oxide scales.