Department of Material Analysis

The scope of the departmet's activity is nowadays being transformed from the preparation and characterization of advanced metallic materials to a broad research group community support in the field of materials characterisation.

It employs materials characterisation by means of X-ray diffraction (both powder and single-crystalline), X-ray reflectivity and electron microscopy (of both transmission and scanning kind). Moreover it devotes itself to operation and support of costly research infrastructure (electron microscopes, X-ray diffractometers) accessible to other research teams and employs itself by training their members to utilize this infrastructure and by supporting them.

Research groups

The department consists of two institutional laboratories:

• ROTAN Laboratory operates X-ray diffractometers and employs tasks of materials characterisation by meas of X-ray diffraction and reflectivity. Among the basic services that are offered to the research teams are
  • phase analysis,
  • thin epitaxial layers characterisation (thickness, misfit, degree of relaxation),
  • orientation determination and orienting of single crystals,
  • structure refinement from powder diffraction data,
  • structural phase transitions in range from -100°C to +2000°C
  and more advanced techniques regarding the quality of specimens delivered.
• Laboratory of electron microscopy operates transmission and scanning electron microscopes equipped with wide spectrum of analytical techniques (e.g. EDX, EBSD, nanoindentation, Ga-FIB, HRTEM, SAED, NBD, CBED, EFTEM, EELS, Lorentz microscopy, in-situ TEM). The laboratory also has at its disposal instruments for sample preparation including mechanical, ion, and electrochemical polishing as well as Ga-FIB. LEM focusses on characterization of materials at micro and nanometer scale. It offers the following types of analysis
  • structure and morphology (SEM, TEM),
  • phase and crystal orientation (SEM/EBSD),
  • mechanical properties (SEM/nanoindentation),
  • phase and morphology of individual nanophases (TEM/EDX/ED/EELS),
  • imaging at atomic resolution (HRTEM),
  • in-situ microscopy (heating, deformation).
• The part of the depatment is also Laboratory of Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy (GD-OES)

Former Group of Bulk Nanomaterials and Interfaces is currently being transferred to the Department of Functional Materials.