LAUSR

A major challenge when performing scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray analysis on many ceramic materials is their electrical insulation properties, which leads to buildup of the surface charge and reduced contrast in the secondary electron image. A new procedure was established to quantitatively determine the neutral state values, E1 and E2, of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) ceramics using the Duane‐Hunt limit (EDHL) of Bremsstrahlung, in order to eliminate this charge effect. Thirty‐eight EDHL values were linearly fitted with the last portion of X‐ray spectra acquired under the incident energy, E0, from 0.35 to 5.0 kV. According to the distribution of EDHL, two piecewise linear fitting was first employed with a breakpoint of 1.0 kV. Consequently, two intersection points of 0.54 and 2.48 kV, which correspond to E1 and E2 for YAG ceramics, were directly determined using a theoretical curve (EDHL = E0). As a result, the high‐resolution images of the YAG ceramic grain structure were successfully obtained using the calculated E1 and E2 values.