A Review of Materials Characterisation by Quantitative Microscopy

Abstract

Quantitative microscopy techniques for manually measuring parameters on light, scanning, and transmission electron microscope images are presented in this review. The numerical techniques contained in this paper are also employed in the algorithms of automated image analysers. Only the most important parameters are covered in detail and these are grain and particle sizes in addition to the volume fractions and mean free path of the microconstituents. Apart from metallic materials, some of the techniques which are described in this review can also be used for polymeric, ceramic and biological materials.