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

透射式电子显微镜是一种表征材料的手段，通过它可以了解材料的结构和性能之间的联系。这种联系使科学家们能够理解设计出性能优异的新材料所需的知识。在该奖项中，将启用用于在瞬变电磁显微镜中进行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玻璃、金属和陶瓷等材料是如何弯曲和断裂的。通过这些观察，研究人员对材料如何在失效前能够承受更大的机械载荷获得了新的见解和理解。该仪器平台将被集成到阿拉巴马大学(UA)的瞬变电磁中，该瞬变电磁位于一个普通用户设施中。在过去的十年里，UA的TEM已经使250多个用户(包括UA和异地用户)能够进行他们的研究。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的发展，通过课程工作和相关的研讨会和会议，将在加州大学校园举行。该奖项使新的能力，阿拉巴马大学(UA)的透射电子显微镜(TEM)的研究活动。具体地说，该平台将允许研究人员在纳米长度尺度上原位测量和量化各种加载行为的实时变形机制。这一平台将极大地影响现有的和新兴的变形研究计划，包括玻璃晶体复合材料、纳米晶金属颗粒以及碳化物和氮化物陶瓷的研究计划。该工具集将成为连接合成-特性-模拟的关键技术，通过表征纳米结构如何调节变形机制的层次结构。原位探头将与现有的进动电子衍射成像技术相耦合，其中原位加载下的颗粒特征将直接相关。如果没有这种动态探测能力，材料响应就会被推断出来，在将实验反馈与计算材料科学的预测和理解联系起来方面留下了严重的空白。在过去的十年中，UA的透射电子显微镜一直是其用户设施(www.af.ua.edu)的核心显微镜，是该中心使用最多的工具，使超过250名校园内外的用户能够进行研究活动。这些用户已经毕业，正在从事造就我们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.