A multi-scale, high-resolution, tri-beam facility for fast machining and 3D characterisation

先进材料的性能和应用，如航空发动机涡轮叶片材料，需要在非常高的温度下运行才能实现高效率；新能源材料，如热能储存材料、锂离子电池材料和下一代电池材料；以及医疗保健材料，主要由其覆盖从纳米到毫米的广泛长度尺度的微观结构控制。要开发现有材料和开发新材料，需要高分辨率(以便能够识别非常精细的细节)、在三维(3D)中对微观结构进行多尺度表征(以便能够揭示非均匀结构)。发展我们在材料表征方面的能力是材料科学和工程中最重要的领域之一。现有的一系列3D材料表征技术包括原子探针层析成像、透射电子层析成像、FIB切片和观察、X射线层析成像。然而，存在从大约100um到1 mm的明显差距，其中当前现有技术不能在实际时间范围内表征。这项提议是为了开发一种独特的多尺度、高分辨率、三光束设备，用于快速加工和3D表征。这个新设施将拥有一束飞秒激光、一束多物种等离子体和一束高分辨率电子束。这种飞秒激光加工材料的速度是传统FIB的15000倍。多物种离子等离子束将能够加工各种各样的材料，包括医疗技术应用材料、能源材料以及航空航天材料。与其他探测器一起，电子束将能够对激光和等离子束制备的材料进行高分辨率分析。因此，新设备将能够表征从100微米到1毫米的材料的化学、结晶学、形态和其他功能特性，目前其他表征技术面临挑战。手套盒的集成将便于处理和表征空气敏感材料，包括电池材料。重要的是，惰性转移设备将允许将材料从该仪器转移到其他表征设施，如可进行更高分辨率分析的透射电子显微镜。该仪器将彻底改变英国的材料表征能力和能力，加速许多重要领域的先进材料和制造业发展，包括电池材料、航空航天材料、储能、3D打印和生物医疗材料。

The performance and applications of advanced materials, such as aeroengine turbine blade materials, which need to operate at very high temperatures to achieve high efficiency; new energy materials such as thermal energy storage materials, lithium ion battery materials and next generation battery materials; and healthcare materials, are largely controlled by their microstructures which cover a wide range of length scales from nanometres to millimetres. To exploit existing materials and to develop new materials requires high resolution (so that very fine details can be identified), multi-scale characterisation of the microstructures (so that heterogeneous structure can be revealed) in three dimensions (3D). Developing our capability in materials characterisation is one of the most important areas for materials science and engineering.There are a range of existing 3D materials characterisation techniques including atom probe tomography, transmission electron tomography, FIB slicing and view, X-ray tomography. However there is a noticeable gap, from about 100 um to 1 mm, where current existing techniques are not able to characterise within a practical time frame. This proposal is to develop a unique multi-scale, high-resolution, tri-beam facility for fast machining and 3D characterisation. This new facility will have a femto-second laser beam, a multi-species plasma beam and a high-resolution electron beam. The femto-second laser is able to machine materials 15000 times faster than a conventional FIB. The multi-species ion plasma beam will enable the machining of a wide diversity of materials including materials for healthcare technology applications, energy materials and also aerospace materials. Alongside other detectors, the electron beam will enable high-resolution analysis of the materials prepared by the laser and plasma beams. Therefore the new facility will enable the characterisation of the chemistry, crystallography, morphology and other functional properties of materials from 100 um to 1 mm currently challenging for other characterisation techniques. The integration of a glovebox will facilitate the handling and characterisation of air-sensitive materials including battery materials. Importantly, the inert transfer device will allow transfer of materials from this instrument to other characterisation facilities such as transmission electron microscope where even higher resolution analysis can be performed.This instrument will revolutionise the materials characterisation capability and capacity in the UK leading to accelerated advanced materials and manufacturing development in many important fields including battery materials, aerospace material, energy storage, 3D printing and bio-medical materials.