A seminar titled with “In-situ mechanical measurement of materials in TEM” was held in Analysis and Test Center of Inorganic Materials on May 15, 2007. Dr. Z. W. Shan from Hysitron, Inc. introduced his post-doctorial researches at National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. By incorporating the advantages of transmission electron microscope and micro-probe technology, Dr. Shan and his colleagues developed a novel and unique in-situ TEM device, named PicoIndenter, which provides an unprecedented ability to accurately measure the force vs. displacement relationship during the deformation of individual nanostructures while simultaneously live-monitoring the microstructure evolution. Via applying this unique in-situ TEM device (displacement resolution of <0.5nm and load resolution of <0.5 mN), they succeeded in the mechanical measurement of many individual nanostructures like sub-micro Al grains, nano particles, nano wires, and sub-micron-sized pillars. These outstanding researches have been published in Science, Nature Materials and Physical Review Letters.

Inorganic Material Testing Center