Teaching

This course is currently offered in Spring 2025, and will be available in Fall 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.

This course will be available in Spring 2026. 

Course details: Coming soon...