SGER: Automated Reflection Laue and Serial Sectioning Characterization of Magnetic and Martensitic Materials

技术：材料的微观结构与材料的多种性能（机械、电气、磁性等）密切相关。为了充分了解微观结构的重要方面，通常需要获得有关晶界，第二相颗粒，大规模缺陷等的三维结构和化学信息。获得这类信息的主要方法之一是通过连续切片的过程。机器人技术的最新进展使得将金相学的人工任务完全转移到机器人装置上成为可能，这种装置更精确，可以全天候工作。在PIs实验室，一台机器人化的金相仪器将于2008年早春安装；该设备生成的光学连续切片图像或蒙太奇的材料体积约为1立方毫米，远远大于任何更传统的连续切片方法，如聚焦离子束铣削。在这个高风险、高回报和变革性的SGER项目中，PI将用反射劳埃相机增强该仪器，开发自动索引软件，并将衍射仪集成到RoboMet中。3D控制硬件。在项目的第一年，PI将实现索引算法，在第二年PI将应用该技术来确定磁性材料和表现马氏体相变的材料的三维微观结构。关于这两类材料的3D信息很少，PI将获取数据集，以便对其宏观材料特性进行后续数值分析。研究的材料系统将包括Fe-3% Si变压器钢（其中异常晶粒生长的问题仍然知之甚少），cu - al基马氏体合金（表现出形状记忆等），以及Ni2MnGa系统，这是一种铁磁形状记忆合金（即它既表现出磁性又表现出马氏体转变）。同时获取以立方毫米为数量级的材料体积的光学图像和方向数据（通过劳厄模式的索引），将能够对迄今为止尚未在3D中研究过的材料进行详细研究。这项研究将创造常规获取这种微观结构信息的工具，并将该方法应用于几种重要的工程材料。从长远来看，这个仪器有能力改变我们看待材料的方式；它将帮助我们改变我们通常的二维微观结构视图（从光学或电子显微图），以真正的三维理解现实世界的微观结构。非技术：能够进行连续切片成像和定向数据采集的全自动设备的开发有可能影响材料界的很大一部分。在短期内，该计划可能会导致这种新仪器的更广泛的商业可用性。这将对材料教育产生直接影响，因为通过该仪器获得的微观结构的3D可视化可以直接纳入课程和教科书，从而使3D金相学成为未来一代材料工程师的基本工具，就像过去的2D金相学一样。

TECHNICAL: The microstructure of materials is intimately connected to multiple material properties (mechanical, electrical, magnetic, etc.). To fully understand the important aspects of a microstructure, it is often necessary to obtain three-dimensional structural and chemical information about grain boundaries, second phase particles, large scale defects, and so on. One of the primary ways of obtaining this kind of information is through the process of serial sectioning. Recent advances in robot technology now make it possible to completely transfer the human tasks of metallography to a robotized setup, which is more precise and can work around the clock. In the PIs laboratory, a robotized metallography instrument will be installed in the early Spring of 2008; this device generates optical serial section images or montages for material volumes of around a cubic millimeter, far larger than any of the more conventional serial sectioning methods, such as focused ion beam milling. In this high-risk, high payoff, and transformative SGER program, PI will augment this instrument with a refection Laue camera, develop automated indexing software, and integrate the diffractometer into the RoboMet.3D control hardware. In the first year of the program, PI will implement the indexing algorithms, and in the second year PI will apply the technique to determine the 3D microstructures of magnetic materials and materials that exhibit martensitic transformations. There is very little 3D information available on either of these material classes, and PI will acquire data sets that will enable subsequent numerical analysis of their macroscopic material properties. Material systems investigated will include Fe-3% Si transformer steel (in which the problem of abnormal grain growth is still poorly understood), Cu-Al-based martensitic alloys (which exhibit the shape memory, etc.), and also the Ni2MnGa system, which is a ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (i.e., it exhibits both magnetism and a martensitic transformation). The simultaneous acquisition of optical images and orientation data (through the indexing of Laue patterns) for material volumes of the order of cubic millimeters will enable the detailed study of materials that thus far have not been studied in 3D. The research will create the tools to routinely obtain this kind of microstructural information, and will also apply the method to several important engineering materials. In the long run, this instrument has the capability to transform the way we look at materials; it will help us change our usual 2D view of a microstructure (from optical or electron micrographs) to a truly 3D understanding of real-world microstructures. NON-TECHNICAL: The development of a fully automated device capable of both serial section imaging and orientational data acquisition has the potential to impact a large portion of the materials community. In the short term, the program may lead to a more widespread commercial availability of this new instrument. This will have an immediate effect on materials education, since the 3D visualizations of microstructures acquired on this instrument can be incorporated directly into courses and textbooks, thereby making 3D metallography for the future generation of materials engineers as basic a tool as 2D metallography has been in the past.