DCG students Dan Scotto D’Antuono and Michael Jablonski have been awarded scholarships to attend Arizona State University’s 2012 Winter School on High Resolution Electron Microscopy. These partial scholarships cover tuition and help defray travel costs to attend the workshop.

The ASU Winter School is a prestigious workshop held every year by leaders in electron microscopy. From the school’s website, “The aim of the school is to introduce the theory and practice of high resolution electron microscopy to scientists currently using transmission electron microscopes for materials science studies.”

For more information, visit: ASU Winter Microscopy School

Chris Barr’s poster, titled “Effect of Grain Boundary Character Distribution in Austenitic Stainless Steels Under Ion Irradiation,” was nominated for best student poster at the 2011 MRS Fall Meeting. This work was conducted in collaboration with Greg Vetterick and Joseph Hsieh at Drexel and Khalid Hattar at Sandia National Laboratory.

Steven Spurgeon has published a new research highlight in the Materials Research Society Bulletin‘s December 2011 issue. The article describes work by researchers at Kyoto University and the NEC Corporation to control the ferromagnetic Curie temperature of cobalt by applying an electric field.

From the article: “Designers of magnetic memories have long sought to control the ferromagnetic ordering temperature with the application of an electric field. Such control would enable the design of more efficient, multifunctional memory technologies, but coupled magnetic and electrical order is only observed in a handful of compounds and typically at very low temperatures. Now a research group at Kyoto University has demonstrated room-temperature control of the ferromagnetic Curie temperature of cobalt . . .”

The article can be viewed directly here or on the Materials Research Society Bulletin website.

The paper discussed in this article is available at Nature Materials.

Steven Spurgeon has published a new research highlight in the Materials Research Society Bulletin‘s November 2011 issue. The article describes work by researchers at the CNRS/Thales Laboratory on interfacial multiferroic coupling between Fe/Co and BaTiO3 thin film layers.

From the article: “Materials possessing coupled room-temperature ferromagnetic (FM) and ferroelectric (FE) order are currently the subject of intense research for use in spintronic memories that store information through charge and spin. Single phase materials displaying such multiferroic order are exceedingly rare in nature, so attention has shifted to artificially-grown thin film FM and FE heterostructures. In the August 21, 2011, issue of Nature Materials, a group led by Manuel Bibes and Agnès Barthélémy at the CNRS/Thales laboratory in Palaiseau, France reports on room-temperature interfacial multiferroicity in BaTiO3 thin films and substrates covered by Fe and Co layers. . .”

The article can be viewed directly here or on the Materials Research Society Bulletin website.

The paper discussed in this article is available at Nature Materials.

Dr. Taheri’s latest paper, titled “Effect of Composition and Deformation on Coarse-Grained Austenite Transformation in Nb-Mo Microalloyed Steels,” has been published in the December 2011 edition of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A.

From the abstract: “Thermomechanical processing of microalloyed steels containing niobium can be performed to obtain deformed austenite prior to transformation. Accelerated cooling can be employed to refine the final microstructure and, consequently, to improve both strength and toughness. This general rule is fulfilled if the transformation occurs on a quite homogeneous austenite microstructure. . .”

The paper can be viewed directly here.

The paper can also be accessed on Springer’s website at Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A.

Steven Spurgeon has published a research highlight in the Materials Research Society Bulletin‘s October 2011 issue. The article describes work by Oak Ridge researchers in their attempts to use scanning probe microscopy to visualize surface oxidation reactions.

From the article: “Researchers are currently exploring the use of atmospheric oxygen as an oxidizer in fuel cells and lithium-air batteries to improve energy-storage densities. However, its implementation is currently limited by a poor understanding of surface reaction kinetics. In the September issue of Nature Chemistry, a research team reports on the use of a novel scanning probe electrochemical strain mapping (ESM) technique that makes it possible to study volumes of material 106–108 times smaller than current microcontact methods. . .”

The article can be viewed directly here or on the Materials Research Society Bulletin website.
The paper discussed in this article is available at Nature Chemistry.

Chris Barr has successfully defended his thesis, titled “Examination of the Grain Boundary Character Distribution in Thermomechanically Processed 316L and Subsequent Effect on Intergranular Corrosion” and been awarded an M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering. Chris will be staying with the group for his Ph.D. studies.

A collaboration of more than twenty leading experts in microstructural characterization, Dr. Taheri’s latest paper, titled “Towards an integrated materials characterization toolbox,” has been published in the Journal of Materials Research.

From the 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. . . .”

The paper can be viewed directly here.

The paper can also be accessed on the MRS website at Journal of Materials Research.

Steven Spurgeon has been awarded a three-year Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship to support his studies of magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic thin films.

The NDSEG Fellowship is a highly competitive, portable fellowship that is awarded to U.S. citizens and nationals who intend to pursue a doctoral degree in one of fifteen supported disciplines. NDSEG confers high honors upon its recipients, and allows them to attend whichever U.S. institution they choose. NDSEG Fellowships last for three years and pay for full tuition and all mandatory fees, a monthly stipend, and up to $1,000 a year in medical insurance.

For more information, please visit: DoD – About NDSEG

Chris Winkler has been awarded the Microscopy Society of America’s Presidential Student Award for his research on in situ transmission electron microscopy of multiferroic bismuth ferrite thin film composites. Chris is one of only 20 students selected from a pool of almost 200 applicants. The award includes full registration to the Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 Conference, as well as housing, travel, and an invitation to the Presidential Reception.

For more information, please visit: MSA Conference Awards