Imaging CDs, DVDs or other optical media under SEM

[Septim]

Greetings,

After getting some training I have access to my universities SEM facilities and I would like to image CDs and DVDs with it(, I know that these consist of many layer which may not be transparent to the e-beam so they might need some preparation. Does anyone have any idea? I am reluctant since I could not exactly figure out what kind of preparation is required for say CD-Rs CD-RWs or directly CD-ROMs. Any suggestions and help is appreciated.

P.S : I found this particular website which might give you a hint about the kind of preparation involved.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Here is an idea of what you'll see

 

[Septim]

Actually I got the following images where the track pitch is nearly the half of the value indicated on the web and your post (0.8μm ). In order to image the CD-R(Not a CD-ROM), first I broke it carefully then I proceed with the aluminium layer just under the label which did not give much of an image and later I decided give the polycarbonate surface a go and got the resulting images at different magnifications.

 

[Septim]

Actually I got the following images where the track pitch is nearly the half of the value indicated on the web and your post (0.8μm ). In order to image the CD-R(Not a CD-ROM), first I broke it carefully then I proceed with the aluminium layer just under the label which did not give much of an image and later I decided give the polycarbonate surface a go and got the resulting images in different magnifications.

View attachment 77663 View attachment 77664 View attachment 77665

You have any idea why the track pitch was half of the value it should be?

 

[mfb]

Track pitch is the full distance from one line center to another, not the width of those lines.