Imaging of Large Area Nanolattices with Simultaneous Reciprocal and Real Space X-Ray Imaging

Nanolattices are a new class of structural materials that can achieve ultra-high strength to weight ratios [1] and are highly resilient to supersonic impact [2]. The latest progress in fabrication methods has enabled the production of centimetre wide nanoarchitected sheets with feature sizes in the range of a few hundred nanometres [3]. Characterization of the overall architecture and uniformity of such sheets can be challenging and time consuming with conventional microscopy methods due to the broad range of length scales involved.<br/>The recently developed method of simultaneous reciprocal and real space X-ray imaging (SRRI) [4] aims at overcoming the fundamental limitation of conventional full-field imaging methods, namely the coupling of spatial resolution and field of view. In particular, sub-micrometre structural information is extracted over large areas by sensing the local ultra-small angle X-ray scattering signal. The whole imaging process is executed in a single shot mode with exposure times of a few milliseconds, thus being ideal for temporal <i>in situ</i> investigations of hierarchical materials that contain features spanning several length scales; i.e from sub-micrometre to centimetre.<br/>In this work, simultaneous reciprocal and real space X-ray imaging is utilized in order to characterise 2.5x2.5 cm²wide nanoarchitected sheets containing features of a few hundred nanometres. We demonstrate that fine variations in the nanoarchitecture which occur during fabrication can be successfully probed. Furthermore, we show that the probed structural variations strongly corelate with the local elastic modulus extracted from extensive nano-mechanical testing. Given the high sensitivity of the method to (sub)-microstructures we expect this imaging platform to be ideal for high throughput strain imaging of large and complex structures. The method was implemented at the tomographic beamline of the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.<br/>References<br/>1. Meza, L. R., Das, S. & Greer, J. R. Strong, lightweight, and recoverable three-dimensional ceramic nanolattices. <i>Science (80-. ).</i> <b>345</b>, 1322–1326 (2014) doi: 10.1126/science.1255908.<br/>2. Portela, C. M., Edwards, W. B., Veysset. D., Sun, Y., Nelson, K., A., Kochmann, D., M. & Greer, J. R. Supersonic impact resilience of nanoarchitected carbon. <i>Nat. Mater. </i><b>292</b>, 6294 (2021) doi:10.1038/s41563-021-01033-z<br/>3. Kagias, M., Friedman, A., Lee, S,. Zheng, T., Faraon, A. & Greer, J. (In preparation)<br/>4. Kagias, M., Wang, Z., Lovric, G., Jefimovs., K. & Stampanoni, M. Simultaneous reciprocal and real space imaging of time evolving systems. <i>Phys. Rev. Applied </i><b>15</b>, 044038 (2021) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.15.044038