Transmission Electron Microscopy: Theory of Imaging to Advanced Applications

By Prof. Sai Rama Krishna Malladi | IIT Hyderabad

Learners enrolled: 649 | Exam registration: 148

ABOUT THE COURSE:

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) has been used extensively to obtain structural, compositional, and morphological information from various kinds of solid samples ranging from materials science, microelectronics, chemistry, microbiology as well as geology at a high resolution. This course is intended to give insights into the fundamental concepts of TEM, physics of image formation, contrast mechanisms, imaging modes and recent advances in the imaging techniques.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Final year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students from disciplines of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Chemistry, Engineering Physics

PREREQUISITES: Some prior introduction to Solid State Physics/Crystallography/Physical Metallurgy helps but is not mandatory

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: JEOL, this company is intending to start a microscopy training school at IIT Hyderabad and this course can come in handy

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Metallurgy and Material science & Mining Engineering Multidisciplinary Physics Chemistry Materials Characterization
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	19 Jan 2026
End Date :	10 Apr 2026
Enrollment Ends :	02 Feb 2026
Exam Registration Ends :	20 Feb 2026
Exam Date :	17 Apr 2026 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.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Introduction to Imaging techniques and revisiting the fundamentals of Imaging Theory

Week 2: Waves and scattering, foundations of imaging principles, aberrations in the context of Transmission Electron Microscope

Week 3: Imaging in TEM, construction of electron microscope, components of electron microscope and working principles

Week 4: Scattering and diffraction and electron diffraction techniques

Week 5: Demonstration of electron diffraction, tilting techniques, obtaining diffraction patterns and unit cell reconstruction

Week 6: Modes of imaging in TEM (bright field, dark field, HRTEM) - theory

Week 7: Modes of imaging in TEM (bright field, dark field, HRTEM) – practical demonstration

Week 8: Modes of imaging in microscope (STEM techniques) - theory

Week 9: Modes of imaging in the TEM (STEM techniques, mapping and analysis) – practical demonstration

Week 10: Analytical TEM techniques – EDS and EELS

Week 11: Recent advances in microscopy techniques.- in-situ electron microscopy

Week 12: Recent advances in microscopy techniques.- S/TEM based phase imaging techniques

Books and references

Carter, C. Barry, and David B. Williams, eds. Transmission electron microscopy: Diffraction, imaging, and spectrometry. Springer, 2016.

Williams, David B., et al. The transmission electron microscope. Springer Us, 1996.

Hawkes, Peter W., and John CH Spence, eds. Springer handbook of microscopy. Springer Nature, 2019.

Buseck, Peter, John Cowley, and LeRoy Eyring, eds.

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy: and associated techniques. Oxford University Press, 1989.

Instructor bio

Prof. Sai Rama Krishna Malladi

IIT Hyderabad

Prof. Sairam has been working at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad since 2017. He obtained his PhD in Applied Physics at Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands, where he worked on developing heating and gas holders and is now focusing on imaging through liquids in Transmission Electron Microscopes. His research interest is to explore and develop new microscopy techniques and applying in-situ electron microscopy for various Materials-related problems.

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: April 17, 2026 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 IIT Hyderabad .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