Hosted by: Dong Su

With the recent development of in situ transmission electron microscopy nanoindentation techniques, the real time study of property-structure correlations in nanomaterials becomes possible. This study reports the direct observations of deformation behavior of Al2O3-ZrO2-MgAl2O4 (AZM) bulk ceramic nanocomposites, strengthening mechanism of twins in YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) thin film and work hardening event in nanocrystalline nickel. Additionally, thin film processing of high quality 2wt% Al doped ZnO (AZO) nanostructures is also reported. AZO thin films in both single layer and bi-layer forms were deposited on c-cut and r-cut sapphire substrates using PLD technique under various oxygen pressures (vacuum ~ 250mTorr). Detailed cross-section TEM study has been conducted to reveal variation in the film morphology.