Developing new methods for studying the local atomic structure in the FeCo alloys needed for electric aircraft

迫切需要减少民用航空产生的排放，以实现全球和国家气候变化目标。实现这一目标的关键方法之一是将电动飞机用于短途航空。为了实现这一转变，需要新的更高功率密度的电动机。这些电机的最新设计利用高性能FeCo软磁合金作为电机铁芯。然而，要将这些材料用于民用航空，需要彻底了解这些材料的来源，以确保安全。被认为影响这些性质的重要因素之一是这些合金中Fe和Co原子的原子排列。这些排列可以是有序的或无序的，并且可以在合金的不同长度尺度上。本项目的主要目标是研究这些合金中的短程有序。为了实现这一点，在这些合金中的局部原子结构将使用一个国家的最先进的FEG单色，探针校正扫描透射电子显微镜最近安装在材料科学与冶金系在剑桥。将开发新的方法来表征这些合金的短程有序和局部原子结构。一旦建立了这样的方法，它将被用来研究这种局部结构形成的不同的处理条件如何影响的FeCo合金的机械和磁性能。

There is a pressing need to reduce the emissions produced by civil aviation in order to meet global and national climate change targets. One of the key ways this could be achieved is by the use of electric aircraft for short haul aviation. To realise this transition, new higher-power density electric motors are required. Latest designs of these electric motors take advantage of high performance FeCo soft magnetic alloys for the motor cores. However, for these materials to be used in civil aviation a thorough understanding of the origins of these materials exceptional properties is needed to ensure safety. One of the important factors thought to impact these properties is the atomic arrangement of the Fe and Co atoms in these alloys. These arrangements can be ordered or disordered and can be over different length scales of the alloy. The main target of this project is to investigate short range ordering in these alloys. To achieve this, the local atomic structure in these alloys will be investigated using a state-of-the-art FEG monochromated, and probe corrected scanning transmission electron microscope recently installed in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at Cambridge. New methods will be developed to characterise the short-range order and local atomic structure of these alloys. Once such methods have been established it will be used to investigate how this local structure formed by different processing conditions impacts the mechanical and magnetic properties of the FeCo alloys.