An Ultrafast View of Multiscale Plasticity

Project Overview

Materials strengthen or shatter because of the multiscale dynamics of how defects at the atomic scale move, interact, and nucleate into large-scale transformations. Across length- and time scales, the dynamics of materials across scales is one of the oldest and most challenging features of materials science to describe—a Grand Challenge dating back to the Bronze Ages. Over the past century, massive advances in technology have enabled significant progress in our measurement and understanding of these multiscale systems—giving rise to the field of defect science. The theory of crystal plasticity now describes much of the multiscale dynamics of solid materials, but significant questions remain in understanding how these dynamics change deep beneath the surface of materials. This has left key fundamental questions unanswered that are essential to technology—including understanding the microscopic origins of material fracture, melting, hardening, and fatigue.

This LDRD project focused on developing an x-ray experimental framework leveraging advances in x-ray sources and optics to directly measure the dynamics of dislocations and mesoscale defects over millisecond (ms) to femtosecond (fs) timescales. Our work developed time-resolved dark-field x-ray microscopy (DFXM) and identified new scientific opportunities from using this new technique. Scientific details of this work are described in the publications cited below and highlight a collaborative project, including ~46 collaborators who enabled these developments. This project developed a time-resolved version of DFXM to resolve the dynamics of dislocations deep beneath the surface of materials by imaging in real-space along the x-ray diffracted beam. Our work included infrastructure development performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) to resolve ms-dynamics demonstrated by DFXM applied to high-temperature metals. We also developed an x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) DFXM to map the dynamics of defects at the fastest possible timescales. Finally, this project developed imaging and diffraction tools to study ultrafast chemistry in bismuth selenide and shock-induced plasticity in diamond. The advances described in this work demonstrate a key step forward in understanding the mesoscale behaviors of materials and setting up a platform to explore this science in x-ray facilities around the world.

Mission Impact

Mesoscale science is of critical importance to energy and national security applications across technology. To map out the fundamental science that underlies these critical technologies—both to improve and redesign them in light of new demands—we require new tools that can access multiscale phenomena spanning time- and length scales previously inaccessible. This project developed the infrastructure to make this technology feasible over the long term, providing important opportunities for both experiments and theory to explore these mesoscale scientific problems in further detail. Future programmatic projects can now further develop the science of multiscale dynamics enabled by time-resolved DFXM. We have already demonstrated the importance of this tool in understanding ultrafast degradation chemistry, shock-induced plasticity, high-energy radiation damage, and high-temperature metallurgy—including opportunities in metal additive manufacturing. The work directly addresses the core competency in high-energy-density science.

Publications, Presentations, and Patents

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, G. Winther, M. M. Howard, A. Gonzalez, S. Breckling, P. K. Cook, C. Yildirim, J. Eggert, C. Detlefs, H. Simons, H. F. Poulsen, "In-situ Visualization of Long-Range Defect Interactions at the Edge of Melting," Science Advances, 7, 20, eabe8311 (2021).

Theodor Secanell Holstad, Trygve Magnus Raeder, Mads Allerup Carlsen, Erik Bergbäck Knudsen, Leora Dresselhaus-Marais, Kristoffer Haldrup, Hugh Simons, Martin Meedom Nielsen, Henning Friis Poulsen, "X-ray Free Electron Laser based Dark-Field X-ray Microscopy: a simulation-based study," Journal of Applied Crystallography, 55 (2021).

H. F. Poulsen, L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, G. Winther, C. Detlefs, "Geometrical Optics Formalism for Contrast in Dark-Field X-ray Microscopy," J. Applied Crystallography, 54, 6, 1-17 (2021).

A. Gonzalez, S. Breckling, M. Howard, L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, "Methods to Quantify Dislocation Behavior with Dark-field X-ray Microscopy Timescans of Single-Crystal Aluminum," in review at Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, arXiv:2008.04972 (2021).

D. Hodge, S. Pandolfi, Y. Liu, K. Li, A. Sakdinawat, M. Seaberg, P. Hart, E. Galtier, D. Khaghani, S. Vetter, C. B. Curry, F.-J. Decker, B. Nagler, H.-J. Lee, C. Bolme, K. Ramos, P. M. Kozlowski, D.S. Montgomery, M.S. Dayton, L. Dresselhaus-Marais, S. Ali, L. D. Claus, M. O. Sanchez, T. Carver, R. L. Sandberg, A. Gleason, "Visualization of shocked material instabilities using a fast-framing camera and XFEL four-pulse train," Proc. SPIE 11839, X-Ray Nanoimaging: Instruments and Methods V, 1183908 (8 September 2021).

H.P. Liermann, Z. Konôpková, K. Appel, C. Prescher, A. Schropp, V. Cerantola, R.J. Husband, J.D. McHardy, M.I. McMahon, R.S. McWilliams, C.M. Pépin, J. Mainberger, M. Roeper, A. Berghäuser, H. Damker, P. Talkovski, M. Foese, N. Kujala, O.B. Ball, M.A. Baron, R. Briggs, M. Bykov, E. Bykova, J. Chantel, A.L. Coleman, H. Cynn, D. Dattelbaum, L.E. Dresselhaus-Marais, J.H. Eggert, L. Ehm, W.J. Evans, G. Fiquet, M. Frost, K. Glazyrin, A.F. Goncharov, H. Hwang, Z. Jenei, J.-Y. Kim, F. Langenhorst, Y. Lee, M. Makita, H. Marquardt, E.E. McBride, S. Merkel, G. Morard, E.F. O'Bannon, C. Otzen, E.J. Pace, A. Pelka, J.S. Pigott, V.B. Prakapenka, R. Redmer, C. Sanchez-Valle, M. Schölmerich, S. Speziale,G. Spiekermann, B.T. Sturtevant, S. Toleikis, N. Velisavljevic, M. Wilke, C.-S. Yoo, C. Baehtz, U. Zastrau,C. Strohm, "Novel experimental setup for megahertz X-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (EuXFEL),"Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 28 (3), 688-706 (2021).

H. Hwang, T. Kim, H. Cynn, T. Vogt, R.J. Husband, K. Appel, C. Baehtz, O.B. Ball, M.A. Baron, R. Briggs, M. Bykov, E. Bykova, V. Cerantola, J. Chantel, A.L. Coleman, D. Dattlebaum, L.E. Dresselhaus-Marais, J.H. Eggert, L. Ehm, W.J. Evans, G. Fiquet, M. Frost, K. Glazyrin, A.F. Goncharov, Z. Jenei, J. Kim, Z. Konôpková, J. Mainberger, M. Makita, H. Marquardt, E.E. McBride, J.D. McHardy, S. Merkel, G. Morard, E.F. O'Bannon, C. Otzen, E.J. Pace, A. Pelka, C.M. Pépin, J.S. Pigott, V.B. Prakapenka, C. Prescher, R. Redmer, S. Speziale, G. Spiekermann, C. Strohm, B.T. Sturtevant, N. Velisavljevic, M. Wilke, C.-S. Yoo, U. Zastrau, H.-P. Liermann, M.I. McMahon, R.S. McWilliams, Y. Lee, "X-ray Free Electron Laser-Induced Synthesis of ε-Iron Nitride at High Pressures," Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 12 (12), 3246-3252 (2021).

L. E. Dresselhaus-Cooper, "An Ultrafast View of X-ray Induced Defect Dynamics in Cosmic Diamonds," PAL Experimental Report Form, LLNL-TR-810542 (2020).

C. Yildirim, H. Vitoux, L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, R. Steinmann, Y. Watier, P. K. Cook, M. Kutsal, C. Detlefs, "Radiation Furnace for Synchrotron Dark Field X-ray Microscopy Experiments," Review of Scientific Instruments, 91, 065109 (2020).

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais “Materials Dynamics: Defects and Damage.” Virtual session in 3D Materials Science, June 2021.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, Invited Speaker, Panofsky Fellowship Finalist Seminar. SLAC National Accelerator Lab, Menlo Park, California, March 2021.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, “Characterization of Materials through High Resolution Imaging.” TMS 2021 Annual Meeting, Virtual, Feb 2021.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, “Defect-Dominated Plasticity and Chemistry in Metals and Alloy.” Materials Research Society Spring/Fall Conference, Virtual, Dec 2020.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, Invited Speaker, Special Departmental Seminar for DMSE and NSE. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 2020.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, Invited Speaker, Departmental Seminar for Materials Science. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, January 2020.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, Invited session on “Emerging Experimental Techniques.” IUCr & ECA High Pressure Workshop, Vienna, Austria, August 2019.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, Winner of Poster Contest for “New Directions of X-ray Science.” X-Ray Gordon Conference, Easton, MA, August 2019.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, “Post-Beamtime Report.” Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Pohang, Korea, May 2019.

L. E. Dresselhaus-Marais, Invited Speaker, “Dynamic Compression Study.” Pohang, Korea, September 2018.