Ceramic Microstructure Characterization
Team Lead: Prof. Greg Thompson
2011-2012: The University of Alabama team has developed microscopy protocols for characterizing BN material by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and nanoindentation analysis (NI), in addition to training a graduate student to conduct this research. In addition, fiducial markers were used to capture a region of interest and characterize the same microstructure and surface topology pre- and post- implantation. This methodology will enable consecutive measurements of the same microstructure to be determined under the plasma exposures in Year Two.
