Abstract
The understanding and management of strain is of fundamental importance in the design and implementation of materials. The strain properties of nanocrystalline materials are different from those of the bulk because of the strong influence of their surfaces and interfaces, which can be used to augment their function and introduce desirable characteristics. Here we explain how new X-ray diffraction techniques, which take advantage of the latest synchrotron radiation sources, can be used to obtain quantitative three-dimensional images of strain. These methods will lead, in the near future, to new knowledge of how nanomaterials behave within active devices and on unprecedented timescales.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the collaboration of M. Watari, M. Newton, S. J. Leake, R. A. McKendry and G. Aeppli in the experimental work presented in Fig. 4. That previously unpublished research was supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Award, a European Seventh Framework Programme Advanced Grant and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant EP/D052939/1. The CXD instrumentation, based at APS beamline 34-ID-C, was built with US National Science Foundation grant DMR-9724294 and supported by the Materials Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois under US Department of Energy (DOE) contract DEFG02-91ER45439. The APS is operated by the US DOE contract number W 31 109 ENG 38.
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Robinson, I., Harder, R. Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging of strain at the nanoscale. Nature Mater 8, 291–298 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2400
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2400
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