Studies of dielectric oxides as a function of field and temperature using scanning transmission electron microscopy

Developing high temperature dielectric materials is important for a range of industrial areas, as this would enable electronic controls to be placed closer to the warm zone of a device such as an engine and therefore improve the operation. This project is therefore of benefit to a range of areas and especially as concerns energy-efficient transportation, and thus touching on key EPSRC and national priorities related to Energy. The specific aim of this project is to develop microscopy techniques for the analysis of the structure and local polarisation of such materials in-situ, under both elevated temperature and electrical bias. It is being performed in parallel to the EPSRC-funded project, EP/P013945/1, "Analysis of Polar Structure in High Temperature Relaxor Dielectrics: Framework for Materials Discovery". Materials are mainly being provided through this project from the group of Dr Steven J Milne at the University of Leeds, where this new class of high temperature dielectrics has been developed. The methods will combine a number of new developments including combined heating and biasing of transmission electron microscope specimens on a MEMS chip via a collaboration with DENS solutions BV, and pixelated detection of scattered and diffracted electrons in scanning transmission electron microscopy using recently developed detectors. This latter area was extensively developed at Glasgow through the project "Fast Pixel Detectors: a paradigm shift in STEM imaging" (EP/M009963/1), and this work also represents a continuation of that work and its application to a specific problem in the applied materials science of functional oxides.