September 15,2008: Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory claim to have achieved a milestone in materials science and electron microscopy by taking a high-resolution snapshot of the transformation of nanoscale structures.

Using the Lab’s dynamic transmission electron microscope (DTEM), which can image transient behavior with a combination of spatial and temporal resolution (i.e., nanometers and nanoseconds), Judy Kim and colleagues Sept. 12 edition of the journal Science.

Schematic of Lawrence Livermore Labs’ dynamic transmission electron microscope (DTEM). (Source: Marcia Johnson/LLNL)

“This is the first time that a detailed study of these reactive nanolaminates has exposed what is happening in the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis zone,” Kim said.

The time-resolved images of nanolaminates show a brief change in structure with a short cellular phase separation during cooling.

“The ability to determine not only crystal structure, but also morphological evolution of dynamic events on the nanoscale has far-reaching implications for the study of materials science, non-equilibrium processes and the behavior of matter on very fine scales of length and time,” Kim said.