Focused ion-beam milling has been applied to prepare needle-shaped atom probe tomography specimens from mechanically alloyed powders without the use of embedding media. The lift-out technique known from transmission electron microscopy specimen preparation was modified to cut micron-sized square cross-sectional blanks out of single powder particles. A sequence of rectangular cuts and annular milling showed the highest efficiency for sharpening the blanks to tips. First atom probe results on a Fe95Cu5 powder mechanically alloyed in a high-energy planetary ball mill for 20 h have been obtained. Concentration profiles taken from this powder sample showed that the Cu distribution is inhomogeneous on a nanoscale and that the mechanical alloying process has not been completed yet. In addition, small clusters of oxygen, stemming from the ball milling process, have been detected. Annular milling with 30 keV Ga ions and beam currents >or=50 pA was found to cause the formation of an amorphous surface layer, whereas no structural changes could be observed for beam currents

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1431927607070717DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

atom probe
12
mechanically alloyed
12
probe tomography
8
specimen preparation
8
alloyed powders
8
annular milling
8
beam currents
8
application focused
4
focused ion
4
ion beam
4

Similar Publications

The functional properties of tetraaryl compounds, M(aryl) (M = transition metal or group 14 element), are dictated not only by their common tetrahedral geometry but also by their central atom. The identity of this atom may serve to modulate the reactivity, electrochemical, magnetic, and optical behavior of the molecular species, or of extended materials built from appropriate tetraaryl building blocks, but this has not yet been systematically evaluated. Toward this goal, here we probe the influence of Os(IV), C, and Si central atoms on the spectroelectrochemical properties of a series of redox-active tetra(ferrocenylaryl) complexes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ductilization of 2.6-GPa alloys via short-range ordered interfaces and supranano precipitates.

Science

January 2025

Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale (CAMP-Nano), Hysitron Applied Research Center in China (HARCC) and Center for Alloy Innovation and Design (CAID), State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.

Higher strength and higher ductility are desirable for structural materials. However, ultrastrong alloys inevitably show decreased strain-hardening capacity, limiting their uniform elongation. We present a supranano (<10 nanometers) and short-range ordering design for grain interiors and grain boundary regions, respectively, in fine-grained alloys based on vanadium, cobalt, and nickel, with additions of tungsten, copper, aluminum, and boron.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chalcogenide exchange reactions are an important class of bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reactions (SN2) involving sulfur and selenium species as nucleophile, central atom, and/or leaving group, which are fundamental throughout redox biology and metabolism. While thiol-disulfide exchange reactions have been deeply investigated, those involving selenium are less understood, especially with regards to the polarised selenenyl sulfides RSe-SR' even though the directed reactivity of selenenyl sulfides is biologically crucial for selenoenzymes such as thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Synthetic methods to create asymmetric selenenyl sulfides with high regiochemical purity only emerged over the last five years; this functional group has already demonstrated powerful applications to cell biology, through probes for molecular imaging (e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Growth of Hexagonal Boron Nitride from Molten Nickel Solutions: A Reactive Molecular Dynamics Study.

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

January 2025

Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, United States.

Metal flux methods are excellent for synthesizing high-quality hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) crystals, but the atomic mechanisms of hBN nucleation and growth in these systems are poorly understood and difficult to probe experimentally. Here, we harness classical reactive molecular dynamics (ReaxFF) to unravel the mechanisms of hBN synthesis from liquid nickel solvent over time scales up to 30 ns. These simulations mimic experimental conditions by including relatively large liquid nickel slabs containing dissolved boron and a molecular nitrogen gas phase.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Effects of laser wavelength and pulse energy on the evaporation behavior of TiN coatings in atom probe tomography: A multi-instrument study.

Ultramicroscopy

January 2025

Christian Doppler Laboratory for Sustainable Hard Coatings at the Department of Materials Science, Montanuniversität Leoben, Franz-Josef-Straße 18, 8700 Leoben, Austria.

The impact of the laser wavelength on accuracy in elemental composition analysis in atom probe tomography (APT) was investigated. Three different commercial atom probe systems - LEAP 3000X HR, LEAP 5000 XR, and LEAP 6000 XR - were systematically compared for a TiN model coating studying the effect of shorter laser wavelengths, especially in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) range, on the evaporation behavior. The findings demonstrate that the use of shorter wavelengths enhances the accuracy in elemental composition, while maintaining similar electric field strengths.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!