December 3, 2021
In partnership with Micro Materials. Established in 1988 Micro Materials has continually been at the forefront of innovation, with a pioneering approach leading to the world’s first nanoscale impact tester, commercial high-temperature nanoindentation stage and liquid cell.
Welcome to the penultimate edition of Modern Surface for 2021. As this year is drawing to an end, I’ve been thinking back on the great opportunities afforded to me this year but also what has been missing. Though lockdowns eased, I’ve missed the face-to-face networking events with colleagues. Though technology has still made this possible, conversation doesn’t flow as well with a computer screen in the way. I’m quite fortunate that I’ll be able to meet some of my fellow KTP associates this week. It’s certainly something I won’t be taking for granted in the future.
Ion bombardment is a key area of study with numerous applications such as in the fundamental growth of thin films and also the generation of defects in materials. Atomistic-Scale Simulations of Defect Formation in Graphene under Noble Gas Ion Irradiation by Yoon et al. presents an excellent combined modelling and experimental study on the topic.Abstract: Despite the frequent use of noble gas ion irradiation of graphene, the atomistic-scale details, including the effects of dose, energy, and ion bombardment species on defect formation, and the associated dynamic processes involved in the irradiations and subsequent relaxation have not yet been thoroughly studied. Here, we simulated the irradiation of graphene with noble gas ions and the subsequent effects of annealing. Lattice defects, including nanopores, were generated after the annealing of the irradiated graphene, which was the result of structural relaxation that allowed the vacancy-type defects to coalesce into a larger defect. Larger nanopores were generated by irradiation with a series of heavier noble gas ions, due to a larger collision cross section that led to more detrimental effects in the graphene, and by a higher ion dose that increased the chance of displacing the carbon atoms from graphene. Overall trends in the evolution of defects with respect to a dose, as well as the defect characteristics, were in good agreement with experimental results. Additionally, the statistics in the defect types generated by different irradiating ions suggested that the most frequently observed defect types were Stone-Thrower-Wales (STW) defects for He+ irradiation and monovacancy (MV) defects for all other ion irradiations.
The breadth of study of a topic can be easily shown by the number of journals that feature it. ion bombardment is published in a number of different areas including nuclear materials, thin films and fundamental physics. You can explore the graphic more here.
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IntechOpen are a great resource for open access peer-reviewed textbooks. Academic publishing is moving towards this model of making knowledge more freely available and this will only improve in years to come as more journals offer this mode of publishing. Modern Surface Engineering Treatments, edited by Mahmood Aliofkhazraei, is an excellent text covering a broad range of surface engineering methods in use today.
New online workshop: Micro Materials User Meeting13th December 2021 9 am – 11.15 am GMT
This online workshop will be an informal chance to hear about advances in the field from users, ask questions and discuss ideas in an open forum. It’s an ideal opportunity to learn more about these techniques. With a focus on nanotribology, we will hear from invited speakers including Professor Robert Wood from the University of Southampton and Professor Mark Gee of the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, Dr Steffen Brinckmann from Juelich Research Centre, Dr Jan Tomastik from the Czech Academy of Sciences. Prof Ben Beake and Adrian Harris will also be presenting and taking part in the Q&A forum.
Speakers and talk titles:
