The microstructural characterization of engineering materials or multi-materials devoted to specific applications is one of the keys to the optimization of their desired properties: on the one hand, it allows elementary mechanisms, such as deformation, damage, or local chemical processes to be identified at a micrometer or sub-micrometer scale, and on the other hand, it provides a valuable feedback guide for the improvement of the elaboration methods, in order to improve the micro- or nanostructure of the materials of interest. The demand for a joined conventional microstructural and analytical characterization is all the more important as modern materials are frequently made of assemblies of various phases, where the properties are governed by interfaces between those different compounds. Hence, a lot of physical properties are greatly dependent on the spatial distribution, size, and chemical nature of the elementary constituents.
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