Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group
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Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group
@expmicromech.com
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Research Group led by Prof Ben Britton, @bmatb.expmicromech.com, based at UBC and Imperial College London.

Mostly news about the group's activities, including papers & preprints.

https://www.expmicromech.com/home
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Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group @expmicromech.com · 8d
We have two funded PhD positions in the group (based at UBC, Vancouver, Canada) - for a May or September 2026 start date - in advancing electron microscopy & materials for clean energy + transportation - to find out more:

www.expmicromech.com/people/oppor...
Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group - Opportunities
NEW OPPORTUNITIES: 2 Fully Funded PhD Positions: Advanced Electron Microscopy for Materials Engineering @ UBC (Vancouver) – www.expmicromech.com/people/opportunities Join the Experimental Micromechani...
www.expmicromech.com
expmicromech.com
We have two funded PhD positions in the group (based at UBC, Vancouver, Canada) - for a May or September 2026 start date - in advancing electron microscopy & materials for clean energy + transportation - to find out more:

www.expmicromech.com/people/oppor...
Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group - Opportunities
NEW OPPORTUNITIES: 2 Fully Funded PhD Positions: Advanced Electron Microscopy for Materials Engineering @ UBC (Vancouver) – www.expmicromech.com/people/opportunities Join the Experimental Micromechani...
www.expmicromech.com
November 4, 2025 at 12:32 AM
expmicromech.com
Members of the team feature in this piece by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, on advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing:

www.innovation.ca/projects-res...
Additive manufacturing: Faster, cleaner, cheaper | Canada Foundation for Innovation
Layer by layer, new technology is transforming Canada’s automotive, aerospace and clean energy sectors
www.innovation.ca
November 4, 2025 at 12:30 AM
expmicromech.com
New paper: "Characterization of WSe2 Films Using Reflection Kikuchi Diffraction in the Scanning Electron Microscope and Multivariate Statistical Analyses" @tbizh95.bsky.social , J Holzer, T Vystavěl, M Kolíbal, E Paiva de Araujo, C Stephens, and @bmatb.expmicromech.com

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Characterization of WSe2 Films Using Reflection Kikuchi Diffraction in the Scanning Electron Microscope and Multivariate Statistical Analyses
The study of thin films and two-dimensional (2D) materials, including transition metal dichalcogenides such as WSe2 offers opportunities to leverage their properties in advanced sensors, quantum techn...
pubs.acs.org
October 29, 2025 at 1:45 PM
expmicromech.com
Members of the group attended, helped co-organize and some even won prizes at the Characterization @ UBC Fall School

Find out more about it here:
characterization.ubc.ca/news/october...
Characterization@UBC Wraps Up Its Inaugural Fall School (Oct 20-22, 2025)
Last week, from October 20-22, Characterization@UBC hosted its inaugural Fall School, a three-day training program showcasing the breadth of advanced characterization techniques across scientific disc...
characterization.ubc.ca
October 29, 2025 at 3:26 AM
expmicromech.com
🚨New Preprint: "Angular Resolution Enhancement of Electron Backscatter Diffraction Patterns" by @bmatb.expmicromech.com and @tbizh95.bsky.social

arxiv.org/abs/2509.23039
Figure from the paper which shows that you can get an angular improvement in the EBSD pattern by using a super resolution method, above what is expected from simply counting longer.
September 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
expmicromech.com
🚨Preprint: "Exploring the potential for scanning electron microscopy/focused ion beam - based diffraction for screening cryo-transmission electron microscopy samples"

EV Woods, C Wigge, Y Zhao, R de Kloe, TM Schwarz, @bmatb.expmicromech.com, S Zaefferer, @batgo.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Workflow of the paper - showing a multi panel image, (a) plug freezing set up; (b) transfer of samples into the SEM-holder; (c) diffraction set ups; (d) post plunge analysis routes
September 28, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group
On behalf of @expmicromech.com - the latest version of AstroEBSD is released, adding the newly developed AstroECP tool to our toolbox (see our preprint announcement). Also we (finally) tidied up the readme files, added descriptions of new features over the years, and created a change log.
July 10, 2025 at 10:43 PM
expmicromech.com
🚨📜: "Practical Considerations for Crystallographic and Microstructure Mapping With Direct Electron Detector-Based Electron Backscatter Diffraction" by @tbizh95.bsky.social, Ruth Birch, Graeme Francolini, Ebru Karakurt, @bmatb.expmicromech.com in Microscopy and Microanalysis doi.org/10.1093/mam/...
Graphical abstract showing the experimental overview, and a brief overview of the results from the paper.
August 28, 2025 at 4:21 PM
expmicromech.com
🚨 New Preprint: "AstroECP: towards more practical Electron Channeling Contrast Imaging"
M. Haroon Qaiser, Lukas Berners, Robin J. Scales, @tbizh95.bsky.social, Martin Heller, Jiri Dluhos, Sandra Korte-Kerzel, @bmatb.expmicromech.com

arxiv.org/abs/2507.00354
Figure 1 from the paper which shows the electron column and microscope layout required to collect and understand and electron channelling pattern
July 2, 2025 at 2:01 PM
expmicromech.com
🚨New #PrePrint - "Characterization of WSe2 films using reflection Kikuchi diffraction in the scanning electron microscope and multivariate statistical analyses" @tbizh95.bsky.social, J Holzer, T Vystavěl, M Kolíbal, E Paiva de Araújo, C. Stephens & @bmatb.expmicromech.com

arxiv.org/abs/2506.22575
Graphical abstract - showing the experimental set up for the analysis of WSe2 films, the data clustering method, analysis of the diffraction patterns, and diffraction patterns from one, two and three layer WSe2 films
July 1, 2025 at 12:22 AM
expmicromech.com
🚨 new preprint - arxiv.org/abs/2506.17534 🔬

"Large volume 'chunk' lift out for 3D tomographic analysis using analytical plasma focussed ion beam -- scanning electron microscopy" by
@drruthb.bsky.social Shuheng Li, Sharang Sharang, Warren J. Poole, @bmatb.expmicromech.com
A graphical abstract showing the steps required to do a lift out experiment - where a chunk of Mg is extracted and then images in 3D
June 24, 2025 at 5:47 AM
expmicromech.com
New paper:

Long, D., Dessolier, T., @bmatb.expmicromech.com Pedrazzini, S., and Dunne, F. P.E., "Zirconium Δ-Hydrides: Strain Localisation, Ratcheting, and Fatigue Crack Propagation" published in the International Journal of Plasticity (2025)

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Figure 1 from the paper - which shows the instrument sample design for in situ optical digital image correlation analysis of zircaloy 4
April 24, 2025 at 8:42 PM
expmicromech.com
🚨New Preprint - "Practical considerations for crystallographic and microstructure mapping with direct electron detector-based electron backscatter diffraction" by
@tbizh95.bsky.social, Ruth Birch, Graeme Francolini, Ebru Karakurt Uluscu, @bmatb.expmicromech.com

arxiv.org/abs/2504.11624
A graphical abstract from the work that shows the microscope set up, examples of the systematic studies that form part of the paper, and three example application areas
April 17, 2025 at 12:31 AM
expmicromech.com
Exciting times - a brand new Thermo Fisher Scientific Apreo Chemisem scanning electron microscope, equipped with EDX and EBSD, is being commissioned for us at UBC - with support from Systems for Research.

This instrument will enable us to develop highly automated materials characterization methods.
A photograph of a new scanning electron microscope in the lab
March 21, 2025 at 12:37 AM
expmicromech.com
🚨New published paper: "Comparison of Kikuchi Diffraction Geometries in Scanning Electron Microscope" by @tbizh95.bsky.social, Lukas Berners, Jakub Holzer, @bmatb.expmicromech.com - where we use and compare direct electro detector configurations for electron crystallography

doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
A figure from the paper which shows different geometries of the experimental set up and the collected diffraction patterns.
February 22, 2025 at 3:47 PM
expmicromech.com
🚨New paper - "Microstructural characterization to reveal evidence of shock deformation in a Campo del Cielo meteorite fragment" by Graeme Francolini and @bmatb.expmicromech.com - accepted for publication in Materials Characterization doi.org/10.1016/j.ma... 🧪🔬🌠
A black and white micrograph revealing deformation twins and other features from the shocked meteorite sample
February 14, 2025 at 1:01 AM
expmicromech.com
🚨New #ArXiv #PrePrint:

"Comparison of Kikuchi Diffraction Geometries in Scanning Electron Microscope" by
@tbizh95.bsky.social, Lukas Berners, Jakub Holzer, @bmatb.expmicromech.com

Exploring on- and off-axis TKD, EBSD and RKD geometries for crystallographic analysis

arxiv.org/abs/2411.13018
Figure 2 from the paper that shows: "Experimental stages and typical raw, background corrected Kikuchi patterns from the four diffraction geometries. Indexed patterns with pattern centre and selected bands overlaid are also shown."
November 21, 2024 at 1:57 PM
expmicromech.com
🚨New paper: "Improving parent-austenite twinned grain reconstruction using electron backscatter diffraction in low carbon austenite" by @drruthb.bsky.social @bmatb.expmicromech.com and Warren Poole in Scripta Materialia (2025) - we use #EBSD and improve the analysis of steel

doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...
A graphical abstract that shows how we go from an initial microstructure map and apply a reconstruction algorithm, which we improve using a 'resort' procedure. The new algorithm has a better looking and more realistic microstructure.
November 19, 2024 at 1:33 AM
expmicromech.com
🚨New paper: "Effect of chromium doping on the grain boundary character of WC-Co" by Max Emmanuel et al., where we measure how the variations in processing parameters influence the microstructure in hard metal cutting tool materials.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
Screenshot of the paper headline from the linked article - showing the full title, journal, and author list.
November 12, 2024 at 5:56 PM
expmicromech.com
This is a BlueSky feed for the @expmicromech.com research group, who are based at the University of British Columbia and Imperial College London.

This will be a low traffic feed, where we'll post news group the group here (which is also pushed to our website - www.expmicromech.com).
Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group
Welcome to the home pages of the Experimental Micromechanical Characterisation Research Group, including Dr Ben Britton and team. We are based both at Imperial College London (UK) and at UBC, Vancouve...
www.expmicromech.com
November 12, 2024 at 12:57 AM