Precise microanalytical techniques are essential in many fields such as cultural heritage
materials, showing complex layered microstructures containing a wide range of materials of
diverse nature and hardness. Noninvasive sample manipulation and preparation is required
to avoid, as much as possible, sample contamination, which may strongly limit the materials
identification. The method proposed consists in the application of thin gold or carbon
protecting layers before embedding the samples in synthetic resin for microtoming. The …