[Physstaff] FW: Colloquium at UGlasgow Wed 28/9/2106, "Enhancing materials design using microscopy and modelling", Rebecca Nicholls (Oxford)

[Daniel Oi]

FYI Colloquium at the University of Glasgow, Physics.

________________________________
From: Sonja Franke-Arnold [Sonja.Franke-Arnold at glasgow.ac.uk]
Sent: 23 September 2016 17:56
To: phas-staff at glasgow.ac.uk; phas-hon-staff at glasgow.ac.uk; phas-pgall at glasgow.ac.uk
Cc: Daniel Oi
Subject: Colloquium: Wed 28/9/2106, "Enhancing materials design using microscopy and modelling", Rebecca Nicholls (Oxford)

Dear All,

Please note in your calendar next week's colloquium.

Title: Enhancing materials design using microscopy and modelling (abstract below)
Speaker: Rebecca Nicholls, Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
Time/Date: 3pm Wed 28st September 2016
Venue: Kelvin Building 257
Doughnuts in the Common Room

Unfortunately I will not be there to introduce Rebecca, but Ian MacLarren has kindly agreed to host the colloquium.

Best wishes,
Sonja

Abstract:
The properties and behaviour of materials are controlled by what is happening at the atomic scale.  Understanding this relationship can lead to the optimisation of existing materials and the design of new ones.  An important part of this process is knowing enough about the structure and bonding at the atomistic level to accurately predict the properties of a material.  Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) carried out inside a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) provides a probe of elemental composition and bonding with atomic resolution.  It allows us to map the local chemistry of a material.  STEM EELS can tackle a wide variety of materials problems and has been used to identify single atoms, determine crystal phases, map dopants at grain boundaries and elements in biological systems as well as to visualise plasmon modes.

This presentation will start with an introduction to EELS and the information present within a spectrum.   I will then highlight the benefits of combining experimental EELS with modelling, which can play an invaluable role in both the interpretation of experimental data and the design of experiments.  Several examples will be discussed including using EELS to identify the presence of a C-N bond in nitrogen-doped graphene [1] and to count nitrogen-vacancies in nanodiamond [2].  Simulation of an EELS spectrum using first-principles techniques starts from an atomistic model.  But what happens if the atomistic structure of the materials is not known?  We have used a combination of first principles structure prediction, EELS and diffraction to solve the structure of an unknown crystal phase at the interface of a metal and oxide [3].  I will finally discuss the approach used and the resulting crystal structure.

[1] RJ Nicholls et al., ACS Nano 7 (2013) 7145-7150
[2] SLY Chang et al., Nanoscale 8 (2016) 10548-10552
[3] RJ Nicholls et al., Adv Eng Mater 17 (2015) 211-215