MRI: Acquisition of In Situ TEM Probing Capability to Elucidate the Stability of Nanostructured Materials

透射电子显微镜（TEM）是表征材料结构和性能之间联系的一种手段。这样的联系使科学家们能够理解设计具有优越性能的新材料所需要的知识。在该合同中，将启用TEM中用于实时机械测量的显微镜平台。这个平台将使研究人员能够观察材料，如玻璃、金属和陶瓷是如何弯曲和断裂的。从这些观察中，研究人员获得了新的见解和理解，即如何在材料失效之前承受更大的机械负荷。该仪器平台将集成到阿拉巴马大学（UA）的TEM中，该TEM位于一般用户设施中。在过去的十年中，UA的TEM已经为250多名用户（包括UA和非现场）提供了研究支持。这为下一代国家科学劳动力提供了所需的高科技培训。新的仪器将继续确保教育和劳动力发展的延续，通过课程工作和相关的研讨会和会议，将在UA校园举行。该合同为阿拉巴马大学（UA）的透射电子显微镜（TEM）研究活动提供了新的能力。具体来说，该平台将允许研究人员在纳米尺度上测量和量化各种加载行为的实时变形机制。该平台将极大地影响变形领域的活跃和新兴研究项目，包括那些在玻璃晶复合材料、纳米晶金属颗粒、碳化物和氮化陶瓷中的研究。该工具集将是通过表征纳米结构如何调节变形机制层次来连接合成-性能-模拟的关键技术。原位探针将与现有的进动电子衍射成像技术相结合，在原位载荷下的晶粒特性将直接相关。如果没有这种动态探测能力，材料的响应是推断出来的，在将实验反馈与计算材料科学预测和理解联系起来方面留下了关键的空白。在过去的十年中，UA的TEM一直是其用户设施（www.caf.ua.edu）的核心显微镜，是该中心最常用的工具，使250多名在校内外的用户能够进行研究活动。这些用户已经毕业，正在从事建设下一代国家劳动力的职业。

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a means to characterize materials from which connections between structure and properties are understood. Such links allow scientists the understanding needed to engineer new materials with superior performances. In this award, a microscopy platform for real-time mechanical measurements in the TEM will be enabled. This platform will enable researchers to watch how materials, such as glasses, metals, and ceramics bend and break. From these observations, researchers gain new insights and understanding in how materials can be engineering to withstand greater mechanical load before failure. The instrument platform will be integrated into the University of Alabama's (UA) TEM, which is located in a general user facility. Over the past decade, UA's TEM has enabled over 250 users (both UA and off-site) in their research. This has provided high-tech training needed for the next-generation national science workforce. The new instrumentation will continue to ensure the continuation of educational and workforce development through course work and related workshops and conferences that will be held on the campus of UA.This award enables new capabilities to the University of Alabama's (UA) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) research activities. Specifically, the platform will allow researchers to measure and quantify in situ, real time deformation mechanisms to various loading behavior at the nanometric length scale. This platform will substantially impact the active and emerging research programs in deformation including those in glassy-crystalline composites, nanocrystalline metallic grains, and those in carbide and nitride ceramics. This toolset will be the linchpin technology that bridges synthesis-properties-simulations by characterization of how nanostructure regulates the hierarchy of deformation mechanisms. The in situ probe will be coupled to an existing precession electron diffraction imaging technique where the grain character under the in situ loading will be directly correlated. Without this dynamical probing capability, material responses are inferred leaving critical gaps in connecting experimental feedback to computational materials science predictions and understanding. In the past decade, UA's TEM has been a centerpiece microscope in its user facility (www.caf.ua.edu), being the most used tool in the center that has enabled over 250 users on and off the campus in their research activities. These users have graduated and are engaged in careers that build our next-generation national workforce.