A beryllium support film will reduce background interference for microanalysis to a minimum. It is particularly useful where analyses for Carbon or silicon are required and supports contain these elements cannot be used.
A deposition of 250 Angstroms thick Beryllium onto the 0.005" thick, 25x25 mm squares of a Cu substrate. The Be can be removed by dissolving the substrate in nitric acid (50:50). The Be film will then be removed from the acid, washed in distilled water and mounted on TEM grids.
Be support film is its very fine grain size which produces a very sharp ring pattern that can be used for in-situ calibration.