Ceramics Division Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory FY 2002 Programs and Accomplishments

Published

September 1, 2002

Author(s)

Gabrielle G. Long

Abstract

Executive SummaryIt has been a noteworthy year for the Ceramics Division. Our Division Chief, Stephen Freiman, was elevated to the post of Deputy Director of the Material Science and Engineering Laboratory. We wish him every success in that office, and we express our gratitude to him for his 10 years of service leading this Division.In a year when there were serious budgetary issues that had to be addressed, the Division staff responded with considerable professionalism and perseverance, leading to a number of noteworthy accomplishments. We made significant advances in the development of unique techniques for use in chemical analysis of nanomaterials as well as in the development of practical functional tests for nanoscale devices. The NIST Recommended Practice Guide: Mechanical Reliability and Life Prediction for Brittle Materials, completed this year, is a compendium of 30 years of research and experience into a single, systematic document. Elastic Moduli Data for Polycrystalline Ceramics (NISTIR 6853), also completed this year; includes moduli for 53 polycrystalline ceramics, as well as analytic model fits. The data, and the analytical results in particular are expected to be extraordinarily valuable for product design and in-service simulations. The Division also completed a large number of Databases and Standards which are now given a separate listing in this Report. We expect to continue to expand our efforts in this important area.The scientific results that emanate from the Division are another measure of success. Serving as Acting Division Chief, I welcome the opportunity to lead our research efforts, to place new emphasis on our Strategic Focus Areas, and to continue the Division s efforts toward providing better services to our customers. Division scientists conduct a broad range of research, from optical and structural characterization of microelectronic and optoelectronic materials, to nanotribology, phase diagrams for high temperature superconductors, phase equilibria and properties of dielectric ceramics, microstructure modeling and microstructure characterization, and mechanical properties measurements. Division scientists also operate and utilize leading edge materials science facilities at synchrotron x-ray sources, in support of our programs. These unique facilities are open to all qualified researchers from industry, universities and government laboratories for advanced materials characterization. Looking toward the future, we expect to place an increasing emphasis on the NIST Strategic Focus Areas in nanotechnology and healthcare, and highlights in this Report already include significant achievements in those areas.Division scientists have been able to characterize the structure and composition of the nanometer scale silicon oxide-nitride-oxide layers, which are of high current interest as possible charge storage structures in non-volatile memory devices. This research is an important contribution to the Program in Microelectronics at NIST. In another nanotechnology area, nanoparticle assemblies have been attached by means of monolayer templates onto silicon substrates where the entire process was comprehensively characterized. As a result of this research, nanoparticles can now be placed into chemically and structurally well-defined environments on silicon substrates.Other Highlights in this Report include both experimental and theoretical investigations. Studies were made of high-speed contact at the head-disk interface in a magnetic disk hard drive, and exciting new first principles calculations were made of properties from atomic scale structure of microwave dielectrics. In addition to these selected Highlights, we report numerous other significant accomplishments in our projects under the 9 Programs in the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory. These brief reports provide a fairly comprehensive synopsis of the breadth and depth of research conducted in our Division

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 6904

Report Number

6904

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Keywords

ceramics, data and data delivery, elastic moduli data, materials structure characterization

Citation

Long, G. (2002), Ceramics Division Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory FY 2002 Programs and Accomplishments, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (Accessed May 8, 2024)