In-situ rapid nondestructive characterization of multiple irregular three-dimensional grain boundary structures and electrical properties by nanorobot with SEM in ZnO

Abstract

To address the problem of spatial quantification of irregular grain boundaries, a unique approach for the nondestructive characterization of multiple irregular three-dimensional grain boundaries is proposed using nanorobots with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to accomplish in-situ rapid synchronized quantification of structures and electrical properties. By constructing a three-dimensional trigonometric geometric mapping relationship, multiple irregular three-dimensional grain boundary structures and electrical properties can be rapidly quantified. Experimental results demonstrate that it is feasible to accomplish in-situ rapid nondestructive characterizations. The two-dimensional profile shapes of the targeted grain boundaries at each layer exhibit irregular and non-uniform features in the Y-Z plane. The hypotenuse length between the virtual space tilting lines presents a three-dimensional characteristic in the X-Z plane. The spatial tilt angle of the virtual space tilting line can be calculated using the right-triangle relation. The unequal numbers of grains along the same tilted hypotenuse direction with equal lengths directly illustrate the existence of irregular and nonlinear grain boundaries in bulk ZnO ceramics. The relatively uniform spatial sizes of the grain boundary illustrate the coupled spatial characteristics existing in the irregular micro-structures. The relatively uniform equivalent circuit fitting parameters confirmed the existence of relatively uniform doping components in bulk ZnO ceramics. Furthermore, this method provides a unique approach for the rapid nondestructive quantitative analysis of multiple three-dimensional irregular grain boundaries in bulk polycrystalline materials.