Local Deformation Mapping of Microstructures

Microstructure-Property-Relationships (MPRs) are at the center of metallurgical research. Even though significant progress has been made over the last 50 years through advanced characterization methods, characteristics controlling MPRs in general cannot be sufficiently determined with state-of-the-art techniques. As such, a general quantitative understanding of these relationships remains elusive, as microstructures are generally very complex, cannot be directly reconstructed by the characteristics of their constituents, and are multiscale in nature (10^-9 m – 10^-3 m).<br/>To address this challenge, we propose a microstructure characterization method, which allows us to locally characterize microstructures with highest resolution, ~5 nm² for their properties controlling deformation. Based on our recently developed thermomechanical nanomolding, we call this method local deformation mapping, LDM, which measures in parallel over macroscopic dimensions, ~cm². LDM allows a smaller local characterization area/volume at comparable accuracy, but in contrast to previously used sequential methods, LDM allows to characterize deformation behavior of microstructures massively parallel with higher spatial resolution and simultaneously over macroscopic dimensions. Thereby LDM has the potential to characterize the local events responsible for the global property response of the microstructure.<br/>We will show examples where LDM has provided novel insights into high temperature creep and sintering processes.