MML Researchers Win Journal of Materials Science Cahn Prize for Best Paper of 2017

Four researchers from MML’s Materials Measurement Science Division have won the prestigious Cahn prize for the best paper published by the Journal of Materials Science in 2017. The paper, "Stress and strain mapping of micro-domain bundles in barium titanate using electron backscatter diffraction," was written by Jane Howell, Mark Vaudin, Lawrence Friedman, and Robert Cook. The work measures the stresses generated by the tetragonal distortions inherent in the crystal structure of the BaTiO3 and sheds light on the major mechanical reliability concern of multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) where BaTiO3 is used as the dielectric. These MLCCs are manufactured at the staggering rate of 1.012 trillion units per year and are in every major electronic device. Each cell phone has of the order of 100 MLCCs in it. The research uses an EBSD-based strain measurement technique, carried out in a scanning electron microscope, that uses cross-correlation of diffraction patterns to determine their distortion and thus the strain and stress in the material under the electron beam. The Cahn prize is named after the founder of J Mat Sci, Robert Cahn.