MRI: Acquisition of a Nanomill for Preparing Highest-Quality TEM Specimens

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0922938ErnstCase Western"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."Technical AbstractWe request funds for a Nanomill, a novel ultra-low-energy concentrated ion beam system for preparing highest-quality specimens for transmission electron microscopy. Designed to perform the final polishing step on specimens that have been pre-prepared by conventional techniques or by a focused ion beam (FIB) system, this instrument is capable of entirely removing the amorphous damaged layers that usually degrade high- resolution TEM images and often obscure important details of the true specimen structure. The instrument is for the Swagelok Center for Surface Analysis of Materials at Case Western Reserve University, one of the best centers of its kind in the USA. The total number of academic users per year always exceeds 100 and includes undergraduate students, graduate students, post- doctoral researchers, and faculty. The Center also plays an important role in the CWRU materials science curriculum as well as for demonstrations to middle school students. Among the most powerful and expensive pieces of equipment are two state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopes (total cost: $3.6 Million). However, we can presently not really exploit the superior abilities of these instruments because our equipment for specimen preparation is not adequate. The proposed Nanomill will close this critical gap and enable major advances in a variety of materials research projects, including a major research program involving 4 faculty and more than 10 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers at CWRU, aiming to understand and develop novel approaches to surface alloying with interstitial solutes (e.g. ?colossal supersaturation?) that provide alloy surfaces with exceptional hardness and corrosion resistance.Non-Technical AbstractWe request funds for a Nanomill, a novel instrument for preparing highest-quality specimens for transmission electron microscopy. The instrument is for the Swagelok Center for Surface Analysis of Materials at Case Western Reserve University, one of the best centers of its kind in the USA. The total number of academic users per year always exceeds 100 and includes undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty. The Center also plays an important role in the CWRU materials science curriculum as well as for demonstrations to middle school students. Among the most powerful and expensive pieces of equipment are two state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopes (total cost: $3.6 Million). However, we can presently not really exploit the superior abilities of these instruments because our equipment for specimen preparation is not adequate. The proposed Nanomill will close this critical gap and enable major advances in a variety of materials research projects.