Abstract
Nanostructured ferritic alloys (NFAs) exhibit complex microstructures consisting of 100-500 nm ferrite grains, grain boundary solute enrichment, and multiple populations of precipitates and nanoclusters (NCs). Understanding these materials' excellent creep and radiation-tolerance properties requires a combination of multiple atomic-scale experimental techniques. Recent advances in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) hardware and data analysis methods have the potential to revolutionize nanometer-to micrometer-scale materials analysis. Modern high-brightness, high-X-ray collection STEM instruments are capable of enabling advanced experiments, such as simultaneous energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy spectrum imaging at nm to sub-nm resolution, that are now well-established for the study of nuclear materials. In this paper, we review past results and present new results illustrating the effectiveness of latest-generation STEM instrumentation and data analysis.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 433-442 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 462 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 14 2015 |
Funding
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division . Tecnai Osiris STEM usage courtesy of FEI Company, Hillsboro, OR. Sample material is courtesy of Dr. D.T. Hoelzer, ORNL. Research on CM200 TEM was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.