MSEL TEM Facility Image Gallery

Welcome to the TEM Facility Image Gallery. Here you can see examples of the latest in materials research at NIST.

	High resolution transmission electron microscopy of Ti and Al multilayers. These layers were grown by electron beam deposition and, when cross-sectioned for TEM, the normally HCP-Ti transforms to a Ti-hydride with an FCC atomic arrangement. The Al remains as an FCC lattice. The multilayers have a common [111] growth direction.
	High resolution transmission electron microscopy of BaTiFeO natural magnetic multilayers. The highly periodic Fe-rich layers (yellow) are separated by a Ba-rich phase (blue). Each spot in the zig-zag pattern corresponds to a single column of atoms in this material, allowing the structure to be exactly determined.
	Energy-filtered imaging of the Ba-Ti-Fe-O M-phase. As high energy electrons penetrate through the material, some energy is lost. Characteristic amounts of energy, specific to a particular element, can be selectively imaged by our state-of-the-art JEM3010 microscope. Here, iron has been imaged as red, whereas Ba is imaged as blue. The highly periodic magnetic layering of this material is clearly evident.
	High resolution transmission electron micrograph of ferroelectric barium titanate (BTO) as grown on a potassium tantalate substrate. BTO is used in communications devices as well as storage and photonics applications. Defects in the BTO layer, seen in this cross-sectional view, can degrade properties. HRTEM plays an important role in understanding the relationship between structure and properties.
	Nano-scale wires of copper and nickel are prepared by electro-chemical deposition and imaged by energy-filtering in the JEM3010 HRTEM. Here, copper is red whereas nickel is green. These wires have novel gigantic magneto-resistive properties as a result of the well-ordered layering of the nickel. (in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University)
	Electron holography of rutile (titanium oxide) particles produced in a flame burner system. The particles form with an unusual central feature. Holography is highly sensitive to the surface topography and mean inner potential variations in materials. The 3-D representation of the reconstructed phase image from nanoscale TiO2 clearly shows the spherical particle and the feature was determined to be a facetted void within the particle.
	'Mexican Carpet' - is a high-resolution TEM image of Ba26Fe20Ti21O98 M phase having a new structural type characterized by the presence of magnetic multilayers separated by dielectric media. Different layers are emphasized in the image by a color scheme. Red/green color corresponds to the Fe-rich magnetic layers, and blue/yellow - to the dielectric layer.
	'The Rose' - was created from a TEM image of a primary crystallized nodule found in the rapidly solidified (atomized) powder of Al-5Mn-5Fe 2Si (wt%) alloy. The nodule ('Rose') has a special structure consisting of a five variants ('petals') of cubic alpha phase. The "petals" are related to each, other by icosahedral symmetry. This special relationship was coined in the paper by Bendersky, Cahn and Gratias (Philosophical Magazine B, 1989, 60, 837) as hyper-twins. The "floor" tile represents the relation of the Rose to icosahedral symmetry by showing elements of the famous Penrose tile.

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