Preparation of TEM Specimens from Gas-Atomized Fe-6.5wt.%Si Powders with Several Micrometers Using Focused Ion Beam

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can be utilized to identify some specific microstructures of metals and alloys. However, it is very difficult to precisely prepare a TEM specimen from the powder particles with several micrometers. There are more or less drawbacks in conventional preparation method. This paper describes a novel method to prepare specific specimens from the powder particles with several micrometers for TEM study. A TEM specimen approximately 5μm diameter was successfully prepared to electron transparency, which extracted from a 5μm diameter powder particle. The selected-area electron diffraction pattern (SAED) analysis was carried out.