Patent Application: US-110404-A

Abstract:
a method and apparatus for visualizing sub - micron size particles employs a polarizing microscope wherein a focused beam of polarized light is projected onto a target , and a portion of the illuminating light is blocked from reaching the specimen , whereby to produce a shadow region , and projecting diffracted light from the target onto the shadow region .

Description:
the instant invention provides a system for achieving sub - diffraction limit resolution in microscopy by a modification of a conventional polarizing microscope . more particularly , in accordance with the present invention a portion of the illuminating beam to a polarizing microscope is obscured upstream of the condenser lens as to produce a shadow or dark background upon which diffracted light from the target is projected . fig3 ( a ) illustrates the optical paths of a conventional polarizing microscope and fig3 ( b ) a modification permitting the observation of the micro - indentation cracks consistent with an embodiment of the instant invention respectively . both the conventional polarizing microscope and the polarizing microscope of the instant invention include a polarizer 100 , a condenser lens 102 , a specimen stage 104 , an objective lens 106 , and analyzer 108 and an eyepiece 110 . in the conventional polarizing microscope , a light beam ( depicted by arrows ) passes through the polarizer 100 , where the light beam is plane polarized , to condenser lens 102 . the condenser lens 102 focuses the light beam onto the specimen stage 104 . at the specimen stage 104 , the light beam is separated into individual wave components that are each polarized in separate , but perpendicular planes i . e ., “ extraordinary rays ”. the extraordinary rays then pass through the objective lens 106 , where magnification occurs , to the analyzer 108 . the analyzer 108 polarizes light at a 90 degree angle from the polarizer , and if no specimen is present , the field will become black . however , if a specimen is placed on the specimen stage 104 , the extraordinary rays will be polarized by the analyzer , where the recombined light beam will be passed to the eyepiece . light rays will then emerge from the eyepiece parallel from each other , and the specimen will appear bright or colored . in the polarizing microscope of the instant invention the polarizer 100 includes a frame edge 10 positioned at the middle of the field of view for the microscope , and a rotating specimen stage 104 a . the frame edge 10 obstructs half of the illuminating light beam . this obstruction produces two effects . first , it generates an oblique , incident beam on the specimen under observation e . g ., a crack line , and part of this oblique light beam is diffracted by the crack line . second , the shadow of the frame edge provides a dark background to see the diffracted light from the crack line ( if no crack is seen , the specimen stage may be rotated and / or moved ). the combination of these two effects makes it possible to observe features with sub diffraction - limit resolution . fig4 shows in detail the optical ray trace of the unobstructed part of illuminating beam 200 , i . e ., the solid lines , and the diffracted beam 202 , i . e ., the dashed lines , from a sub - micron object or target 204 , e . g ., an indention crack in accordance with the present invention . as is shown in fig4 , half of the light beam passes through the polarizer 100 , where the light is polarized , to the condenser lens 102 . from the condenser lens 102 , the light beam then passes to the sub - micron sized object or target 204 , where part of the illuminating beam is diffracted off the sub - micron sized object or target and into the darkened region . thus , an image of the sub - micron sized object or target against a dark background is produced when the sub - micron sized object or target is viewed from an eyepiece . as can be seen from fig4 , generally , two geometrical conditions are met for this system to work optimally : ( 1 ) the object needs to be located in the vicinity of the shadow line made by the frame edge ; and ( 2 ) the object needs to be able to cause diffraction into the dark region . this entails it having structural components parallel to the edge of the frame edge . the first condition specifies the size of the observation range . the second requirement presents a limitation on the observable structural feature of the object . however , this limitation can be overcome by making two orthogonal images of the same object and superimposing them to form a complete picture . thin ( 0 . 76 mm in thickness ) specimens of 8 - mol % yttria stabilized zirconia ( 8ysz ) were made from tz - 8ysz powder ( from tosoh , japan ). the powder was then processed into a slurry with dispersant , binder , and plasticizer , and the slurry was tape - cast . the specimens were laser - cut out of green sheets and sintered at 1450 ° c . for 3 hours ( cheng , chen and sridhar , 2002 ). the surface flatness of as - fired specimens was between 20 and 30 μm as measured by a microscope . fig5 is a sem picture showing the microstructure of this material . an intersection method was used to estimate the average grain size , i . e ., lines were drawn on the sem pictures , with the distance between two grain - boundaries being measured along the lines . the average grain size of pure 8ysz is found from fig5 to be 2 . 1 μm . a micro vickers indentation was made with a micromet ® 3 micro hardness tester , which is a product of buehler ltd . the indenter load applied was 4 . 91 n - which was determined by trial and error to ensure a c / a ratio within the required range . the half - diagonal length ( a ) of the indentation was measured directly by the light microscope attached to the hardness tester . to determine the crack length , a polarizing metallurgical microscope ( zeiss model im 35 ) was used to measure the total length ( 2c ) of the induced crack on the ceramic sheet specimen . the characteristics of the crack are as follows : length of the crack typical 80 μm and width of the crack 40 nm , as measured by a scanning electron microscope ( hitachi , model s - 2460n ). these cracks were not visible under the normal working condition of the zeiss microscope at 300 × magnification ( fig6 ( a )). when the magnification was switched to 1000 ×, the image could no longer be properly focused due to the surface roughness . therefore , it was impossible to observe any cracks by this microscope in normal operation mode . however , using the method of this invention , the expected cracks could be observed . the crack line became clearly visible when the opaque frame of the polarizer of the polarizing microscope was moved to near the center of the observing field with the shadow of the polarizer frame being near the location of the crack line , as shown in fig6 ( b ). the above method was repeated using a buehler ® metallurgical microscope ( buehler ® versamet 3 metallograph ) and the same effect was observed . the only visible crack line was the one parallel to the shadow cast by the frame . crack lines perpendicular to the frame edge were not visible because the incident light was only being diffracted in the bright region , producing a small signal in a very noisy background . thus , the diffracted beam could not reach the dark region to be observed . two thin 8ysz ceramic substrates were tested using the above method and apparatus , and over 30 tests were performed on each substrate . with the indenter loads and the dimensions of indentation and the resultant cracks , the test results were processed to obtain fracture toughness values using the following equations ( selçuk and atkinson , 2000 ). k ic = 0 . 035 ⁢ h v ⁢ a ϕ ⁢ ( e ⁢ ⁢ ϕ h v ) 2 5 ⁢ ( l a ) - 1 2 ⁢ ⁢ for ⁢ ⁢ 0 . 25 ≤ l a ≤ 2 . 5 ( 2 ) k ic = 0 . 0143 ⁢ ( e h v ) 2 3 ⁢ ( p c 3 2 ) ⁢ ( l a ) - 1 2 ⁢ ⁢ for ⁢ ⁢ 1 ≤ l a ≤ 2 . 5 ( 3 ) k ic = 0 . 055 ⁢ h v ⁢ a 1 2 ϕ ⁢ ( e ⁢ ⁢ ϕ h v ) 0 . 4 ⁢ log 10 ⁡ ( 8 . 4 ⁢ a c ) ⁢ ⁢ ⁢ and ( 4 ) k ic = h v ⁢ a 1 2 ⁡ ( e h v ) 2 5 ⁢ ( 10 f ) ( 5 ) where e is the young &# 39 ; s modulus , hv is the vickers hardness , φ is a dimensionless constant taken to be 2 . 7 , p is the applied load , a is the half length of the indenter diagonal , c is the crack length from the center of the indent , and l is the crack length from the corner of the indent . in eq . ( 5 ), f =− 1 . 59 − 0 . 34 x − 2 . 02 x 2 + 11 . 23 x 3 − 24 . 97 x 4 + 16 . 32 x 5 ( 6 ) the reason for selecting these four equations is not only because they have been reported to be valid for the palmqvist - type cracks and more accurate in determining toughness than others , but also that these equations have been used by selçuk and atkinson ( 2000 ) to evaluate the toughness of the same material using macro indentation toughness evaluation methods . thus , it is possible to compare the test results from different sources using different methods . the young &# 39 ; s modulus used in equations ( 2 )–( 5 ) to evaluate toughness values was 216 gpa . this is in concurrence with the young &# 39 ; s modulus of 8ysz ceramic material as reported by selçuk and atkinson ( 2000 ). the fracture toughness results reduced from the experiments using the method of this invention are shown in table 1 . the results by selçuk and atkinson ( 2000 ) are also listed in table 1 for comparison . the test results are statistically stable as evidenced by the small standard deviations . the specimens a and b can be considered identical in properties since they were made from one green tape with the same processing parameters . the tests on specimens a and b were conducted at different times intentionally for the purpose of avoiding perspective errors . tests on specimen a were about one week later than those on specimen b . it is shown from table 1 that the differences of the measurements of the average toughness between specimen a and specimen b are 0 . 53 % by eq . ( 2 ), 6 . 09 % by eq . ( 3 ), 1 . 61 % by eq . ( 4 ) and 2 . 27 % by eq . ( 5 ). the number of tests on specimen a and b were more than 30 each . equation ( 2 ) shows the minimum standard deviation among these four equations whereas eq . ( 3 ) shows the maximum standard deviation . in comparison with the toughness measurement results from selçuk and atkinson ( 2000 ) as shown in table 1 , the micro indentation toughness evaluation results obtained using the system of this invention are comparable with the results obtained by macro indentation evaluation methods . it should be noted that the system of this invention is more versatile and can be applied on thin or small specimens where macro indentation is not applicable . to investigate the effects of surface polishing on the toughness values , another group of micro vickers indentation toughness evaluation tests were performed on a surface - polished but otherwise the same specimen . the test results , which are listed in table 2 , confirmed that the surface polishing could significantly change the test results . the tests were conducted on a specimen with the same surface condition as that in practical service ; otherwise , the specimen must be rigorously heat treated to recover the surface condition . thus , if the sem measurements are assumed to be an accurate determination of crack length , the experimental results using the system of the present invention show that the error of measurement was within 5 %. thus , it is possible to use the system of this invention with a conventional microscope to evaluate the toughness of thin ceramic substrates , even substrates with as - fired surface conditions . further , specimens of 8ysz material were tested using the system of the present invention . the experimental results are comparable to the results from literature , corroborating the validity of the present invention . experiments with surface - polishing specimens indicated that the polishing procedure increased the toughness measurement results significantly . thus , the present invention provides an efficient method and apparatus and economical method and apparatus to measure small crack dimensions on thin ceramic substrate surfaces , either polished or as - fired . while the invention has been described in connection with measuring of small crack , i . e ., sub - micron size dimensions on thin ceramic substrate surfaces the invention also advantageously may be used for detecting and for measuring sub - micron sized particles such as mold , dust , and various biological particles including weaponized bio - agents . a particular feature and advantage of the present invention is that the invention permits resolution to 40 nm ( equivalent to λ / 10 in visible wavelength ), using a conventional polarizing microscope with minimal , low - cost modification . anton , r . j . and subhash , g ., 2000 . dynamic vickers indentation of brittle materials . wear , vol . 239 , 27 – 35 . astm c 1327 – 96a , 1996 . standard test method for vickers indentation hardness of advanced ceramics . american society of testing and materials annual book of standards , 15 . 01 , 543 – 47 . brach , s ., 2000 . optimization of electrolyte material for use in solid oxide electrolysis cells . master &# 39 ; s thesis , university of ariz . tucson . cheng , m ., chen , w . and sridhar , k . r ., 2002 . experimental method for a dynamic biaxial flexural strength test of thin ceramic substrates . journal of the american ceramic society , vol . 85 [ 5 ], 1203 – 209 . cook , r . f . and pharr , g . m ., 1990 . direct observation and analysis of indentation cracking in glass and ceramics . journal of the american ceramic society , vol . 73 , 787 – 817 . dunn , r . c ., 1999 . near - field scanning optical microscopy . invited review article for chemical reviews , vol . 99 , 289 1 – 2927 . monk , g . s ., 1963 . light principles and experiments . pp . 77 , dover . niihara , k ., morena , r ., and hasselman , d . p . h ., 1982 . journal of materials science letters , vol . 1 , 13 – 16 . palmqvist , 1957 . a method to determine the toughness of brittle materials , especially hard metals . 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