Analytical Answers, Inc.
"The information you need ... when you need it."
Sample micrographs from AAI - Right click on an image and then select "Save Target As..." to save a full size copy to your computer.
| Polarized light micrograph of cotton fibers, 100x, mostly crossed polars. Note regular twist in fiber cross section and strong bifringence. Compare to paper fibers below. (Image size 625k) |  |
| Polarized light micrograph of paper fibers, 100x, mostly crossed polars. Note crushed and tangled appearance of fibers. Compare to cotton fibers above. (Image size 656k) |  |
| Darkfield reflected light micrograph, 100x, of crystals found on the surface of a degraded NiCr wire. Wire had been cycled between room temperature and 1,000 C (1,800 F) under load in air before failure. (Image size 240k) |  |
| Scanning electron micrograph, 250x, of the same crystals on a NiCr wire as shown above. (Image size 985k) |  |
| Scanning electron micrograph, 950x, of the same crystals on a failed NiCr wire as shown above. Energy Dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDS) shows the crystals to be almost pure chromium (Cr). Fine granular background matrix contains high levels of nickel (Ni) and oxygen. (Image size 757k) |  |
| Brightfield reflectance micrograph, 20x, of a wire bond failure on a digital camera chip. Complex failure symptoms were found to have resulted from this single failure. (Image size 156k) |  |
| Brightfield reflectance micrograph, 50x, of the wire bond failure shown above. Often, the basic initial investigation using this and similar low magnification microscopy will find the failure root cause. (Image size 125k) |  |
| Reflectance micrograph, 6x, of sugar crystals formed between icing rivers on a lemon scone. Production line contamination by food residues is a continuing problem in manufacturing operations. (Image size 250k) |  |
| Oral epithelial cells, 200x, using phase contrast microscopy (PCM). PCM is an optical technique which uses off-axis illumination, and image acquisition using off-axis rays. This technique brings out differences in refractive index, making features such as cellular and subcellular structures clearly visible. Such features would not be visible without staining. (Image size 329k) |  |
| LUNCH INTERRUPTED: Scanning electron micrograph, 26x, of an ant captured and scanned while eating a mite. Note the mite's legs visible between the mandibles (jaws). (Image size 909k) |
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| STEREO IMAGING: AAI can create stereo pairs and false-color anaglyph images to better show three-dimensional characteristics. The example to the right shows a SEM image of a curled metal whisker at 1,400x. (Image size 235k) |
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