The acquisition of an analytical electron microscope facility is proposed. The availability of this equipment would greatly improve the quality and extend the scope of several ongoing and proposed materials research projects at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Many of these projects are sponsored by the NSF. The proposed equipment would have very high spatial resolution limits for both microstructural observations and microarea X-ray and diffraction analysis. The instrumentation will be interfaced with a recently acquired X-ray microanalysis system and an image analyzing system. This will complement our analysis capabilities that are available with our capabilities to include ceramic and semiconductor materials. The research projects that would be enhanced by the purchase of the proposed instrumentation include the following studies: grain boundary nucleation and growth of carbide and laves phases in high nickel alloys, the origin of deformation controlled grain size distribution width, particle coarsening, characterization of II-VI semiconductors for infrared detectors, processing and characterization of high temperature superconducting materials, new materials for high-speed microelectronic packaging applications, characterization of thin ceramic coatings on metal substrates, structure analysis of hydroxyapatite bone filler material, heavy metal ion attachment for antimicrobial effect, field ion microscope/atom probe analysis of niobium and carbon segregation to grain boundaries in nickel-based alloys, defects in alkaline earth oxides, processing and properties of metals, identification of defects in crystals formed during growth, the relationship of physical and magnetic properties of sputtered cobalt-chromium thin films to corrosion behavior, and tissue ingrowth into polymer fabric implants.
