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Advanced Material Characterization by Atom Probe Tomography and Electron Microscopy

By Prof. Surendra Kumar Makineni   |   IISc Bangalore
Learners enrolled: 120
ABOUT THE COURSE:

This PG/PhD level course will introduce students to advanced electron microscopy and atom probe tomography techniques that can be used to understand fundamental microstructural entities of alloys in relation to their physical/structural properties at the micro-to-atomic scale.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry

PREREQUISITES: Basics of solid state physics

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: Tata Steel, Saint Gobin, HAL, DRDO, BARC, Midhani, Hindalco
Summary
Course Status : Upcoming
Course Type : Elective
Language for course content : English
Duration : 12 weeks
Category :
  • Metallurgy and Material science & Mining Engineering
  • Materials Characterization
Credit Points : 3
Level : Postgraduate
Start Date : 21 Jul 2025
End Date : 10 Oct 2025
Enrollment Ends : 28 Jul 2025
Exam Registration Ends : 15 Aug 2025
Exam Date : 25 Oct 2025 IST
NCrF Level   : 4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.


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Course layout

Week 1:  Introduction to field ion microscopy (FIM) Theory of field ionization, “Atoms” in FIM, spatial resolution of FIM, FIM images

Week 2: Atom Probe tomography, Theory of field evaporation, Atoms one-by-one: Tomography

Week 3: Instrumental setup, Pulsing technique – HV, Laser, Experimental details, Specimen alignment, detection of ions, Mass spectra, mass resolution, common artefacts

Week 4: Elemental identification, compositional measurement, detectability

Week 5: Flight path, pulse fraction, selection of pulsing mode, pulsing rate, detection rate

Week 6: Tomographic reconstruction, Projection of ions Electric field, Ion trajectories, models, Fundamentals of reconstruction protocol, Calibration of reconstruction – techniques, Artefacts, Spatial and depth resolution.

Week 7: Sample Preparation, Electro-polishing Chemical polishing, Focused Ion-beam techniques, Influence of specimen geometry on data

Week 8: Application to Materials Science with practical examples, Concentration analysis, Visualization techniques, 1-D concertation and density profiles, Ladder diagrams

Week 9: 2-D composite maps, Proximity histogram, Radial Distributions functions, Spatial distribution maps, APT crystallography

Week 10: Correlative electron microscopy and atom probe tomography, Introduction to electron channeling patterns and electron channeling contrast imaging in SEM

Week 11: Introduction to Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction (TKD) in SEM, Introduction to basic diffraction methods and high-resolution imaging in transmission electron microscope (including STEM imaging)

Week 12: Corelative sample preparation techniques, Correlative methods that include electron microscopy techniques in conjunction with atom probe tomography

Books and references

  1. C Barry Carter and David Williams, Transmission Electron Microscopy
  2. James Howe, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Diffractometry of Materials
  3. Baptiste Gault, Atom Probe Microscopy

Instructor bio

Prof. Surendra Kumar Makineni

IISc Bangalore
Dr. Surendra Kumar Makineni is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science. He is an accomplished researcher with an industrial outlook, having over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He completed his B.Tech from NIT Rourkela and PhD from IISc Bangalore. Before moving back to his alma mater as a professor, he spent his time at the Max-Planck Institute for Iron Research Dusseldorf, Germany, as a post-doctoral researcher, where he was selected for the esteemed Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. He is currently heading the Alloy Design, Deformation, and Degradation (A3D) Group at IISc and as a group head for the MPG-IISc Partner group (2021-2026). He was awarded with the prestigious INSA-Young Associate Award for the year 2024 from INSA, India, the NASI-Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award for the year 2021 from NASI, India and Excellency in Microscopy Award for the year 2021 from EMSI, India.
 
The group works on a range of materials for engineering applications such as aerospace, automobiles, etc. They manipulate structures at the atomic scale using advanced characterization techniques such as electron microscopy and atom probe tomography by elemental additions to design new materials with improved properties. The main areas are Superalloys (Co- and Ni-based), Light Metal Alloys (Al- and Mg-based), and other engineering alloys such as Cu-based, High entropy alloys, etc. Additionally, advanced microscopy characterization methods correlate the effect of local structure and compositional changes directly to the material strength and creep properties.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: October 25, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IISc Bangalore .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team


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