Teaching

Fall 2025, Spring 2025

Course description:

This course will cover the fundamentals and working principles of a wide range of microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, and their applications in analyzing the structure or property of materials. The key topics include:

1. Structure of materials

2. X-ray diffraction (XRD)

3. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

4. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)

5. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

6. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM): scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)

7. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)

8. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS)

9. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)

10.    X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS)

11.    Thermal analysis: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

Course objectives:

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

1.     Understand the structure of materials

2.     Understand the fundamentals and working principle of various characterization tools

3.     Learn the application of characterization tools in their research

Useful references:

1.     Materials Characterization: Introduction to Microscopic and Spectroscopic Methods, Yang Leng, 2nd Edition, Wiley-VCH 2013.

2.     Microstructural characterization of Materials, David Brandon and Wayne D. Kaplan, 2nd Edition, Wiley-VCH 2008.

3.     Elements of X-ray Diffraction, B. S. Cullity and S. R. Stock, 3rd edition, Prentice-Hall 2011.

4.     Transmission Electron Microscopy: A Textbook for Materials Science, David B. William and C. Barry Carter, Springer 2019.

5.     Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy, Stephen J. Pennycook, Peter D. Nellist, Springer 2011.

Spring 2026 

Course details: Coming soon...