%0 journal article
%@ 2059-8521
%A Richert, C., Wu, Y., Hablitzel, M., Lilleodden, E., Huber, N.

%D 2021
%J MRS Advances
%N 20
%P 519-523 
%R doi:10.1557/s43580-021-00099-w
%T Image segmentation and analysis for densification mapping of nanoporous gold after nanoindentation
%U https://doi.org/10.1557/s43580-021-00099-w
20 
%X Segmentation of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of focused ion beam (FIB) cross-sections through indented regions in nanoporous gold (np-Au) is carried out. A key challenge for image analysis of open porous materials is the appropriate binarization of the pore and gold ligament regions while excluding material lying below the cross-sectional plane. Here, a manual approach to thresholding is compared to global and local approaches. The global thresholding resulted in excessive deviations from the nominal solid fraction, due to a strong gray-scale gradient caused by the tilt angle during imaging and material shadowing. In contrast, the local thresholding approach delivered local solid fractions that were free of global gradients, and delivered a quality comparable to the manual segmentation. The extracted densification profiles vertically below the indenter as well as parallel to the surface showed an exponential-type decay from the indenter tip towards the nominal value of 1 far from the indenter.