2ND-ORDER STEREOLOGY FOR PORES IN TRANSLUCENT ALUMINA STUDIED BY CONFOCAL SCANNING LASER MICROSCOPY

The three-dimensional (3-D) arrangement of pores in translucent alumin a was investigated with a confocal scanning laser microscope (CSLM). B y moving the focal plane of the CSLM down into the material, a stack o f serial thin optical sections was obtained to produce a 3-D image of the pores. Computer-based image analysis was used to obtain the coordi nates of the pore centroids. The distance distribution function G(r) a nd the second-order functions K(r), L(r), H(r) and g(r) were used to a nalyse the spatial point pattern of the pore centroids. Estimates of t he preceding functions obtained from eight stacks of sections were com pared with the corresponding functions for a 3-D stationary Poisson po int process, which served as a reference model for complete spatial ra ndomness. The analysis suggested that the pore centroids were arranged in an aggregated pattern within a range of about 10 mu m.