If you’ve seen the abbreviation OM in a scientific context, it probably stood for Optical Microscopy or Optical Microscope. Optical Microscopy (OM) is the technique, and the Optical Microscope...
Posts by Brandon Ohl
What is Scanning Electron Microscopy? (How it Works, Applications, and Limitations)
If there is a tool that is most-used by materials scientists, that tool is the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The SEM allows scientists to observe materials at length scales that are too small...
Semiconductors are materials with a highly controllable electrical conductivity. Semiconductors have a small band gap which engineers can use to switch between conducting and nonconducting. This...
Metals conduct electricity because they have “free electrons.” Unlike most other forms of matter, metallic bonding is unique because the electrons are not bound to a particular atom. This allows...
What is Yield in Materials? Yield Stress, Yield Strength, and Yield Point
The yield point is the boundary between elastic deformation and plastic deformation. Before the yield point, a material bends by stretching atomic bonds. Beyond the yield point, the atoms have...
The melting point of a material is primarily related to bond strength. Materials with strong bonds between atoms will have a high melting temperature. However, other factors--such as crystal...