Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

What's in a 'NYM?

Published

Author(s)

Robert R. Keller

Abstract

The field of electron microscopy, by its very diverse nature, abounds with acronyms: AEM, EF-TEM, ESEM, FE-SEM, HREM, HRTEM, HVEM, SEM, STEM, TEM, and VP-SEM, to name some instruments alone. Add in the different forms of data that these instruments might collect, and it can overwhelm some: ADF, BF, BSE, CBED, CL, DF, EBIC, EBSD/BEKP/BKD/EBSP, ECCI, EDS/EDX, EELS, HAADF, NBD, SAD, and SE, to mention some popular ones. For the brave reader, check out the acronym listing at the beginning of DB Williams and CB Carter, “Transmission Electron Microscopy” vol. I, Plenum, 1996! How do we microscopists and microscope users (this difference may be a separate opinion item…) come up with these acronyms?
Citation
Microscopy Today
Volume
21
Issue
4

Keywords

acronyms, electron backscatter diffraction, opinion

Citation

Keller, R. (2013), What's in a 'NYM?, Microscopy Today, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=913950 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created July 1, 2013, Updated February 19, 2017