Graphical abstract showing a range of characterization methods to understand the structure of the meteorite fragment
🚨 new #PrePrint: "Correlative Microstructural Analysis of a Weathered Nantan Meteorite Fragment" by Graeme J. Francolini, Brendan V. Dyck, Paul Mack, @bmatb.expmicromech.com
arxiv.org/abs/2604.14187
Graphical abstract of the paper - shows the way that patterns can be formed through scanning of the electron beam through a variety of angles, and the resulting EBSD-like maps that show this data.
🚨 New #PrePrint: T Ben Britton, M. Haroon Qaiser, Ruth M. Birch "Channeling-in channeling-out revisited: selected area electron channeling and electron backscatter diffraction" arxiv.org/abs/2603.27082
A graphical abstract for the work which showcases the diffraction pattern capture, detector calibration, geometrical analysis, and then the full intensity simulations of the resulting patterns
🚨 New #ArXiv PrePrint: @tbizh95.bsky.social, Raynald Gauvin, Aimo Winkelmann, @bmatb.expmicromech.com "Dynamical Simulation of On-axis Transmission Kikuchi and Spot Diffraction Patterns, Based on Accurate Diffraction Geometry Calibration"
#ElectronMicroscopy #Microscopy
arxiv.org/abs/2603.22628
🚨New preprint: "The role of austenite twins on variant selection during decomposition in low carbon steels" by @drruthb.bsky.social, @bmatb.expmicromech.com and Warren Poole from UBC Materials Engineering.
📝: arxiv.org/abs/2603.07378
📽️: www.youtube.com/shorts/IC-Pa...
#Microscopy
🚨 New Paper (open access) - published in the Journal of Applied Crystallography: "AstroECP: towards more practical Electron Channeling Contrast Imaging" by M. H. Qaiser, L. Berners, R. Scales, T. Zhang, M. Heller, J. Dluhos, S. Korte-Kerzel, and B. Britton
journals.iucr.org/j/issues/202...
Micrographs which show ferroelastic domain structure, and the associated crystallography
🔬paper: W Peng, A Singh, MH Qaiser, P Fahler-Muenzer, F Watson, L Si, Y Xie, KE Sopińska, DA Chaney, AM Sanchez, @bmatb.expmicromech.com , @richbean0.bsky.social , M Hadjimichael, M Alexe "Electron channeling contrast imaging of ferroelastic domains" Advanced Materials (2026) doi.org/10.1002/adma...
Graphical abstract of the lift out process
New paper: "Large volume ‘chunk’ lift out for 3D tomographic analysis using analytical plasma focussed ion beam – scanning electron microscopy" by Ruth Birch, Shuheng Li, Sharang Sharang, Warren J. Poole, and @bmatb.expmicromech.com
doi.org/10.1016/j.mi...
We have two funded PhD positions in the group (based at UBC, Vancouver, Canada) - for a May or September 2026 start date - in advancing electron microscopy & materials for clean energy + transportation - to find out more:
www.expmicromech.com/people/oppor...
Members of the team feature in this piece by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, on advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing:
www.innovation.ca/projects-res...
New paper: "Characterization of WSe2 Films Using Reflection Kikuchi Diffraction in the Scanning Electron Microscope and Multivariate Statistical Analyses" @tbizh95.bsky.social , J Holzer, T Vystavěl, M Kolíbal, E Paiva de Araujo, C Stephens, and @bmatb.expmicromech.com
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Members of the group attended, helped co-organize and some even won prizes at the Characterization @ UBC Fall School
Find out more about it here:
characterization.ubc.ca/news/october...
Figure from the paper which shows that you can get an angular improvement in the EBSD pattern by using a super resolution method, above what is expected from simply counting longer.
🚨New Preprint: "Angular Resolution Enhancement of Electron Backscatter Diffraction Patterns" by @bmatb.expmicromech.com and @tbizh95.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2509.23039
Workflow of the paper - showing a multi panel image, (a) plug freezing set up; (b) transfer of samples into the SEM-holder; (c) diffraction set ups; (d) post plunge analysis routes
🚨Preprint: "Exploring the potential for scanning electron microscopy/focused ion beam - based diffraction for screening cryo-transmission electron microscopy samples"
EV Woods, C Wigge, Y Zhao, R de Kloe, TM Schwarz, @bmatb.expmicromech.com, S Zaefferer, @batgo.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
On behalf of @expmicromech.com - the latest version of AstroEBSD is released, adding the newly developed AstroECP tool to our toolbox (see our preprint announcement). Also we (finally) tidied up the readme files, added descriptions of new features over the years, and created a change log.
Graphical abstract showing the experimental overview, and a brief overview of the results from the paper.
🚨📜: "Practical Considerations for Crystallographic and Microstructure Mapping With Direct Electron Detector-Based Electron Backscatter Diffraction" by @tbizh95.bsky.social, Ruth Birch, Graeme Francolini, Ebru Karakurt, @bmatb.expmicromech.com in Microscopy and Microanalysis doi.org/10.1093/mam/...
Figure 1 from the paper which shows the electron column and microscope layout required to collect and understand and electron channelling pattern
🚨 New Preprint: "AstroECP: towards more practical Electron Channeling Contrast Imaging"
M. Haroon Qaiser, Lukas Berners, Robin J. Scales, @tbizh95.bsky.social, Martin Heller, Jiri Dluhos, Sandra Korte-Kerzel, @bmatb.expmicromech.com
arxiv.org/abs/2507.00354
Graphical abstract - showing the experimental set up for the analysis of WSe2 films, the data clustering method, analysis of the diffraction patterns, and diffraction patterns from one, two and three layer WSe2 films
🚨New #PrePrint - "Characterization of WSe2 films using reflection Kikuchi diffraction in the scanning electron microscope and multivariate statistical analyses" @tbizh95.bsky.social, J Holzer, T Vystavěl, M Kolíbal, E Paiva de Araújo, C. Stephens & @bmatb.expmicromech.com
arxiv.org/abs/2506.22575
A graphical abstract showing the steps required to do a lift out experiment - where a chunk of Mg is extracted and then images in 3D
🚨 new preprint - arxiv.org/abs/2506.17534 🔬
"Large volume 'chunk' lift out for 3D tomographic analysis using analytical plasma focussed ion beam -- scanning electron microscopy" by
@drruthb.bsky.social Shuheng Li, Sharang Sharang, Warren J. Poole, @bmatb.expmicromech.com
Figure 1 from the paper - which shows the instrument sample design for in situ optical digital image correlation analysis of zircaloy 4
New paper:
Long, D., Dessolier, T., @bmatb.expmicromech.com Pedrazzini, S., and Dunne, F. P.E., "Zirconium Δ-Hydrides: Strain Localisation, Ratcheting, and Fatigue Crack Propagation" published in the International Journal of Plasticity (2025)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A graphical abstract from the work that shows the microscope set up, examples of the systematic studies that form part of the paper, and three example application areas
🚨New Preprint - "Practical considerations for crystallographic and microstructure mapping with direct electron detector-based electron backscatter diffraction" by
@tbizh95.bsky.social, Ruth Birch, Graeme Francolini, Ebru Karakurt Uluscu, @bmatb.expmicromech.com
arxiv.org/abs/2504.11624
A photograph of a new scanning electron microscope in the lab
Exciting times - a brand new Thermo Fisher Scientific Apreo Chemisem scanning electron microscope, equipped with EDX and EBSD, is being commissioned for us at UBC - with support from Systems for Research.
This instrument will enable us to develop highly automated materials characterization methods.
A figure from the paper which shows different geometries of the experimental set up and the collected diffraction patterns.
🚨New published paper: "Comparison of Kikuchi Diffraction Geometries in Scanning Electron Microscope" by @tbizh95.bsky.social, Lukas Berners, Jakub Holzer, @bmatb.expmicromech.com - where we use and compare direct electro detector configurations for electron crystallography
doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
A black and white micrograph revealing deformation twins and other features from the shocked meteorite sample
🚨New paper - "Microstructural characterization to reveal evidence of shock deformation in a Campo del Cielo meteorite fragment" by Graeme Francolini and @bmatb.expmicromech.com - accepted for publication in Materials Characterization doi.org/10.1016/j.ma... 🧪🔬🌠
Figure 2 from the paper that shows: "Experimental stages and typical raw, background corrected Kikuchi patterns from the four diffraction geometries. Indexed patterns with pattern centre and selected bands overlaid are also shown."
🚨New #ArXiv #PrePrint:
"Comparison of Kikuchi Diffraction Geometries in Scanning Electron Microscope" by
@tbizh95.bsky.social, Lukas Berners, Jakub Holzer, @bmatb.expmicromech.com
Exploring on- and off-axis TKD, EBSD and RKD geometries for crystallographic analysis
arxiv.org/abs/2411.13018
The data and code for this paper is available on Zenodo, if you want to give it a go yourself:
zenodo.org/records/1338...
A graphical abstract that shows how we go from an initial microstructure map and apply a reconstruction algorithm, which we improve using a 'resort' procedure. The new algorithm has a better looking and more realistic microstructure.
🚨New paper: "Improving parent-austenite twinned grain reconstruction using electron backscatter diffraction in low carbon austenite" by @drruthb.bsky.social @bmatb.expmicromech.com and Warren Poole in Scripta Materialia (2025) - we use #EBSD and improve the analysis of steel
doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...
Screenshot of the paper headline from the linked article - showing the full title, journal, and author list.
🚨New paper: "Effect of chromium doping on the grain boundary character of WC-Co" by Max Emmanuel et al., where we measure how the variations in processing parameters influence the microstructure in hard metal cutting tool materials.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
This is a BlueSky feed for the @expmicromech.com research group, who are based at the University of British Columbia and Imperial College London.
This will be a low traffic feed, where we'll post news group the group here (which is also pushed to our website - www.expmicromech.com).