Materials Characterization

It is the first course at the under graduate level on microstructural characterization of materials. This course will cover the basic principles and techniques of X-ray diffraction, optical, scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy along with demonstrations of the instrument details and imaging experiments through videos.  This course also deals with the sample preparation techniques for the microstructural analysis with practical examples through videos.

Week 1

1. Fundamentals of optics

2. Optical microscope and its instrumental details

Week 2

3. Variants in the optical microscopes and image formation

4. Phase contrast, Polarised light, Differential interference contrast, Fluorescence microscopy

Week 3

5. Sample preparation and applications of optical microscopes

Week 4 

6. Introduction to Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Week 5

7. Instrumental details and image formation of SEM

Week 6 

8. Various imaging techniques and spectroscopy

9. Sample preparation and applications of SEM

Week 7

10. Fundamentals of X-ray scattering 

11. Bragg’s law derivation and the factors affecting the intensity

Week 8

12. Crystallite size, effect of strain on the intensity

13. Profile fit, indexing, peak broadening

Week 9

14. Quantitative analysis, residual stress analysis

15. Instrumentation details and demo experiments of XRD

Week 10

16. Introduction to transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

Week 11

17. Diffraction and image formation

18. Various imaging techniques and spectroscopy

Week 12

19. Sample preparation and applications of TEM

20. Instrumentation details and demo experiments of TEM