Review

Towards an integrated materials characterization toolbox

Ian M. Robertson^a1 c1, Christopher A. Schuh^a2, John S. Vetrano^a3, Nigel D. Browning^a4, David P. Field^a5, Dorte Juul Jensen^a6, Michael K. Miller^a7, Ian Baker^a8, David C. Dunand^a9, Rafal Dunin-Borkowski^a10, Bernd Kabius^a11, Tom Kelly^a12, Sergio Lozano-Perez^a13, Amit Misra^a14, Gregory S. Rohrer^a15, Anthony D. Rollett^a15, Mitra L. Taheri^a16, Greg B. Thompson^a17, Michael Uchic^a18, Xun-Li Wang^a19 and Gary Was^a20

^a1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801

^a2 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

^a3 Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, District of Columbia 20585

^a4 Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California—Davis, Davis, California 95616; and Condensed Matter and Materials Division, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550

^a5 School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164

^a6 Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Materials Research Division, Technical University of Denmark, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark

^a7 Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831

^a8 Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755

^a9 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208

^a10 Center for Electron Nanoscopy, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

^a11 Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439

^a12 Cameca Instruments Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin 53711

^a13 Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PH, United Kingdom

^a14 MPA-CINT, MS K771, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545

^a15 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

^a16 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

^a17 Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487

^a18 Materials & Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433

^a19 Neutron Scattering Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831

^a20 Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Abstract

The material characterization toolbox has recently experienced a number of parallel revolutionary advances, foreshadowing a time in the near future when material scientists can quantify material structure evolution across spatial and temporal space simultaneously. This will provide insight to reaction dynamics in four-dimensions, spanning multiple orders of magnitude in both temporal and spatial space. This study presents the authors’ viewpoint on the material characterization field, reviewing its recent past, evaluating its present capabilities, and proposing directions for its future development. Electron microscopy; atom probe tomography; x-ray, neutron and electron tomography; serial sectioning tomography; and diffraction-based analysis methods are reviewed, and opportunities for their future development are highlighted. Advances in surface probe microscopy have been reviewed recently and, therefore, are not included [D.A. Bonnell et al.: Rev. Modern Phys. in Review]. In this study particular attention is paid to studies that have pioneered the synergetic use of multiple techniques to provide complementary views of a single structure or process; several of these studies represent the state-of-the-art in characterization and suggest a trajectory for the continued development of the field. Based on this review, a set of grand challenges for characterization science is identified, including suggestions for instrumentation advances, scientific problems in microstructure analysis, and complex structure evolution problems involving material damage. The future of microstructural characterization is proposed to be one not only where individual techniques are pushed to their limits, but where the community devises strategies of technique synergy to address complex multiscale problems in materials science and engineering.

(Received January 08 2011)

(Accepted January 26 2011)

(Online publication June 07 2011)

Key Words:

• X-ray tomography;
• Transmission electron microscopy (TEM);
• Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Correspondence:

^c1 Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: ianr@illinois.edu

Footnotes

This section of Journal of Materials Research is reserved for papers that are reviews of literature in a given area.

This author was an editor of this journal during the review and decision stage. For the JMR policy on review and publication of manuscripts authored by editors, please refer to http://www.mrs.org/jmr_policy