15:30-16:15

3D X-ray Microscopy – Extending Synchrotron Optics to the Materials Science Laboratory

3D x-ray microscopy (XRM) has emerged as a powerful non-destructive imaging technique that provides unique microstructural information from a range of materials from polymers to metals to ceramics. Advanced optics with imaging resolutions down to 50 nm, once achievable only at synchrotron beamlines, have recently been extended by Xradia to the laboratory as a complement to electron, scanning probe and optical microscopies.

This seminar will illustrate how x-ray microscopy and tomography is enabling new science in the materials laboratory. First a primer on the optical architectures employed in Xradia laboratory microscopes will be presented, both for <700nm and <50nm resolutions^[1]. We will further explore in detail how XRM has begun to enable experiments in materials science previously unattainable using the standard suite of characterization instruments.

Imaging and quantifying the evolution of microstructure of the same sample region at relevant resolutions remains a unique capacity of 3D x-ray microscopy. Several examples of in situ and ‘4D’ experiments will be presented, including crack propagation in ceramics, porosity and permeability characterization, deformation of polymer foams under load and the evolution of defects in anode materials in Lithium ion batteries^[2]. Examples of phase contrast imaging (Zernike approach) for low-contrast materials, ranging from polymers to unstained biological tissue will also be shown. Finally, the workflow using 3D x-ray characterization as a complementary step before high-resolution techniques (e.g. TEM or Atom Probe) will be discussed.

References:

[1] A. Tkachuk, et. al., X-ray computed tomography in Zernike phase contrast mode at 8 keV with 50-nm resolution using Cu rotating anode X-ray source. Z. Kristallogr., 222, (2007), 650–655.

[2] P. Shearing, et. al., In situ x-ray spectroscopy and imaging of battery materials. ECS Interface, 20, 3 (2011), p. 43.

Speaker

Dr. Arno P. Merkle & Dr. Eric Snyder, Xradia, Inc., USA