Hello, I have a few samples of SS316, polished and etched. They are mounted in bakelite (which in non-conductive). I would like to take a few SEM images to see the microstructure. I was wondering if I deposit a carbon layer, is it going to cover the surface of the samples, so the microstructure will not be shown? Any thought on how to make it conductive.
As of Ni paste, I need to add carbon coating to avoid charging of bakelite.
Kaoru Aou it is conductive but the samples are small and embedded in bakelite which is not conductive. Having a gold coating does not affect the microstructure? The samples are heavily deformed at some edges (I have martensite) and the aim is to measure the thickness of this layer. So, it is extremely important to have a clear surface.
Since your material itself is conductive, it is sufficient to make a conductive path from anywhere on th sample to the instruments (electrical) ground i. e. the stage. This can be done by a conductive coating (5nm Au or C should be sufficient and leave the microstructure visible). Make sure that the sides of your sample/mount is coated as well. Often the surface is conductive due to sputtering or coating but the sidewalls are forgotten and there is no path to ground. This will lead to charging as well.
Another option is to use a conductive tape (Cu or Al is common) and connect it to an edge of the sample surface and the bottom of your mounting bakelite block. Th e contact can be secured with one or two drops of conductive silver/carbon paste. This works quite well.
Another possibility is to unmount your sample and "glue" it directly to a conductive SEM stub (e.g. with silver paste). I did this with my samples sometimes, but they were mounted in Epofix, which can be softened with a minimum amount of heat to unmount the polished sample.
Gold Sputtering of around 5 nm can be performed for better results avoiding charging of material.
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