Film Grain Research Articles

The electronic transport characteristics in wide band-gap nitrogen vacancy diamond/Si hetero-structure using Raman spectrum

Abstract The negative charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond is ideal sensitive detectors for quantum measure applications. Raman active phonon and inelastic light scattering in face-centered cubic diamond/Si(1 0 0) films were primarily studies by Raman spectra in various scattering configurations and NV concentration. The fabricated diamond (1 0 0) thin films were successfully epitaxial grown on Si(1 0 0) substrate using MPCVD. The Raman scattering spectrum of diamond/Si(1 0 0) hetero-structure with different thickness nanostructure is present to investigate spin orbital transport dynamics of phase transition. Diamond hetero-junction experiments were carried out at different conditions such as temperature range of 15–300 K and concentration of NV. The results show a strong peak at 1332 cm−1 of D mode indicates the E2g of diamond, as well as the peak 1550 cm−1 of a broad band F2g symmetry G mode which corresponds to the nano-diamond. The disordered graphitic carbon is formed by disordered SP2 hybridization. The 1132 cm−1 and 1480 cm−1 are corresponding with hydrogen bonding within film grain boundaries. The transfer of diamond sp2 content extracted from C C peak and converted to the sp3 spin related effect. The diamond/Si(1 0 0) PDOS indicated the spin-related couple of SP3, and p and d orbital hybridization. The research leads to a better understanding of the Raman active spectra and inelastic light scattering of diamond/Si(1 0 0) films and offers guidelines for better orbital hybridization material design in deep ultra-violet photo-sensor, gyroscopes, field effect transistors (FET) using diamond hetero-structure and high-k oxide gate structure, magnetometer, thermometer, and optical switching micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices.

Surface Roughness Variation and Microstrucural Evolution of AU Thin Films in Rapid Annealing by Microwave and Furnace Heating

Microstructural evolution of Au thin film in post-annealing by microwave and by electric furnace heating was compared. Wave number spectra of film surface roughness were analyzed to characterize their roughness variation by annealing. Coarsening of film microstructure occurred consistently as the increase of the annealing temperature in both methods. Labyrinth-shaped morphologies consisting of bump-ridge crystals were formed by annealing, which might be originated from the fine-grained colonies existed in the as-deposited state. Bumps were formed through coalescence and growth within the colony and increased their height as the increase of annealing temperature. Eventually, microstructures and crystal morphologies became similar by both annealing methods above 800~850°C. However, there are following differences observed in the low temperature annealing cases: 1. While a temporal variation of the film microstructure was observed in furnace annealing, microwave annealing exhibited smaller tendency of this feature. 2. Fine roughness (higher wave number range) of the films was reduced more in the temperature below 720oC by microwave annealing than by furnace annealing. 3. Bump height increase was pronounced more by microwave annealing between 600~800°C, corresponding to the roughness increase (RMS, root mean square value of the roughness). On the other hand, film coverage decreased. The reasons for the difference was discussed by consideration of the competition among the capillary driven surface diffusion, contribution of electro-migration and the thermodynamic equilibrium shapes of the film grain structures.

Influence of Sputtering Power Density on the Thermoelectric and Mechanical Properties of Flexible Thermoelectric Antimony Telluride Films Deposited by DC Magnetron Sputtering

Antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) films were deposited on flexible polyimide substrates by DC magnetron sputtering technique using a 99.9% alloy Sb2Te3 target. We measured structural, electrical, thermoelectric and mechanical properties with sputtering power density in the range 30–50 W. X-ray diffraction confirmed that all Sb2Te3 films have high crystallinity with a significant preferential growth along the (015) plane. Surface morphologies were verified by scanning electron microscope: deposited film grain size increased with sputtering power density. The elemental composition was determined by energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. Electrical transport properties, carrier concentration, was measured by Hall effect measurement at room temperature. Electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient were simultaneously measured by a DC four-terminal method (ZEM-3). The power factor was strongly dominated by electrical conductivity, leading to a maximum of 1.95 mW/K2m with sputtering power 45 W at 300°C. The wettability test, based on the contact angle, evaluated surface energy and hydrophilicity. Nanoindentation was measured on a NHT2 CSM Instrument with diamond Berkovich indenter (B-P 31) at room temperature. The hardness and elastic modulus of deposited Sb2Te3 films increased with the power density.

Oblique angle deposition of nickel thin films by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering.

Background: Oblique angle deposition is known for yielding the growth of columnar grains that are tilted in the direction of the deposition flux. Using this technique combined with high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) can induce unique properties in ferromagnetic thin films. Earlier we have explored the properties of polycrystalline and epitaxially deposited permalloy thin films deposited under 35° tilt using HiPIMS and compared it with films deposited by dc magnetron sputtering (dcMS). The films prepared by HiPIMS present lower anisotropy and coercivity fields than films deposited with dcMS. For the epitaxial films dcMS deposition gives biaxial anisotropy while HiPIMS deposition gives a well-defined uniaxial anisotropy.Results: We report on the deposition of 50 nm polycrystalline nickel thin films by dcMS and HiPIMS while the tilt angle with respect to the substrate normal is varied from 0° to 70°. The HiPIMS-deposited films are always denser, with a smoother surface and are magnetically softer than the dcMS-deposited films under the same deposition conditions. The obliquely deposited HiPIMS films are significantly more uniform in terms of thickness. Cross-sectional SEM images reveal that the dcMS-deposited film under 70° tilt angle consists of well-defined inclined nanocolumnar grains while grains of HiPIMS-deposited films are smaller and less tilted. Both deposition methods result in in-plane isotropic magnetic behavior at small tilt angles while larger tilt angles result in uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. The transition tilt angle varies with deposition method and is measured around 35° for dcMS and 60° for HiPIMS.Conclusion: Due to the high discharge current and high ionized flux fraction, the HiPIMS process can suppress the inclined columnar growth induced by oblique angle deposition. Thus, the ferromagnetic thin films obliquely deposited by HiPIMS deposition exhibit different magnetic properties than dcMS-deposited films. The results demonstrate the potential of the HiPIMS process to tailor the material properties for some important technological applications in addition to the ability to fill high aspect ratio trenches and coating on cutting tools with complex geometries.

Enhancement of magnetic properties by adjusted structure in Fe nanocrystalline films via annealing and applying high magnetic field at different film-formation stages

To improve the magnetic properties of films applied in spintronic devices, this article explored the microstructure and magnetic properties of Fe nanocrystalline films via annealing and applying high magnetic field (HMF) during different film-formation stages. The results indicate that both annealing and HMF inhibited the sloping and overlapping of the columnar grains in the as-deposited film. Annealing promoted the formation of nanoparticles, while annealing with HMF arrayed the columnar grains along the direction of HMF. A chain arrangement with mixture columnar grains and nanoparticles was observed by combined film-growth HMF and annealing. Different-stage HMFs and annealing improved the particle size but suppressed the stain and surface roughness of the Fe films. The film-growth HMF and annealing both enhanced the saturation magnetization (Ms) of the Fe films. Especially, combined film-growth HMF and annealing obtained 10% larger Ms than Fe bulk. The low disordered structure, average grain size and grain shape anisotropy under film-growth HMF and annealing remarkably decreased the coercivity (by 91%) but increased the remanence ratio (by 67%) of films. However, annealing with HMF did not obviously improve the magnetic properties of Fe films. These indicated that film-growth HMF and annealing provide useful ways to adjust structure and enhance properties.

DC substrate bias enables preparation of superior-performance TiN electrode films over a wide process window

When stacking with various underlying layers in the microelectronics devices, titanium nitride electrode films are not only desired to meet the critical requirements for high conductivity and low surface roughness, but also to be deposited over a wide processing window. In this work, a negative substrate bias was introduced as an additional power for the reactive sputtering of titanium nitride films. Upon systematically adjusting the substrate bias, working pressure and substrate temperature, the evolution of film properties was studied in detail in terms of resistivity, growth rate, crystal structure, surface morphology and composition. It was shown that an optimized substrate bias is beneficial for film densification and grain reorientation. As a result, titanium nitride films with superior-performance (resistivity ≤ 53.2 μΩ·cm and surface roughness ≤0.66 nm) can be grown over a wide working pressure range of 0.3–1.1 Pa and substrate temperature range from room temperature to 350 °C.

Optoelectronic characterization of CuInGa(S)2 thin films grown by spray pyrolysis for photovoltaic application

Copper–indium gallium disulfide (CIGS) is a good absorber for photovoltaic application. Thin films of CIGS were prepared by spray pyrolysis on glass substrates in the ambient atmosphere. The films were characterized by different techniques, such as structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of CIGS films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), spectrophotometer and Hall effect, respectively. After optimization, the deposited films structure, grain size, and crystallinity became more important with an increase of annealing time at 370 °C for 20 min. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis shows that the interface sheets are well crystallized and the inter planer distance are 0.25 nm, 0.28 nm, and 0.36 nm. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) observation shows that the grain size and roughness can be tolerated by optimizing the annealing time. The strong absorbance and low transmittance were observed for the prepared films with a suitable energy bandgap about 1.46 eV. The Hall effect measurement system examined that CIGS films exhibited optimal electrical properties, resistivity, carrier mobility, and carrier concentration which were determined to be 4.22 × 106 Ω cm, 6.18 × 102 cm2 V−1 S−1 and 4.22 × 106 cm−3, respectively. The optoelectronic properties of CIGS material recommended being used for the photovoltaic application.

Optimization and Characterization of Si3N4 Layer for Wear Resistant Ti-Al-N/Si3N4 Nano- Composite Coatings

Machining Custom 465 steel at high speeds usually at 20-30% lower than ordinary stainless steel leads to excessive tool wear and thereby affecting the tool life. In such case tool life can be increased by coating a nano-composite layer of Ti-Al-N/Si3N4 which exhibits high strength, hardness, toughness, resistance to oxidation and thermal shock. Particularly, Si3N4serves as an interfacial phase in nano-composite layer is thermodynamically stable phase at high temperatures up to 1850˚C along with high oxidation resistance which might reduce the heat flow between tool-workpiece interfaces leading to high thermal stability of cutting tool. Physical vapor deposition techniques can be used to develop Ti-Al-N/Si3N4 nano-composite coating which involves typically 81 trial depositions in order to obtain optimized process parameters for Si3N4. Here we attempt to reduce the number of trails by design and optimization of process parameters which was efficiently achieved at faster rate by applying the Taguchi design. In present work, we used Taguchi orthogonal (L9) array to conduct the 9 experiments and obtained optimum process parameters for Si3N4 coating. Based on the design we deposited Si3N4nanocoating using RF magnetron sputtering process with 4 factor and 3 level process parameters namely, Ar:N2 gas mixture, RF Power, deposition time, and deposition pressure on high speed steel (HSS), tungsten carbide (WC) and Si (100) substrates. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) studies were carried for surface roughness, topography, and phase contrast imaging. Glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) studies were performed for the identification and quantification of crystalline and amorphous phase. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) studies were performed for the film thickness and grain size of Si3N4layers.

Local magneto-optical response of H+ irradiated Zn1−xCoxO thin films

The local distribution of magneto-optical properties of hydrogen irradiated Zn1−xCoxO thin films has been investigated by means of magneto-optical Kerr microscope magnetometer, capable of simultaneously measuring the magnetic properties with a micrometer spatial resolution. The experimental results indicate that the magneto-optical response is quite homogenous on the micrometer scale, indicating that the film grain size is crucial in determining the local coercivity distribution.

The Search for a Ceramic Lithium-Ion Conductor Using Combinatorial Approach

We present combinatorial method for high-throughput screening and synthesis of libraries of solid lithium-ion conductors. The method has the advantages of speed, simplicity and the capability to produce and control simultaneously a variety of compositions by the co-deposition on a substrate of several different materials to create “materials library”. In our research we fabricate materials libraries by two methods. The first one is RF-magnetron sputtering, where Ar plasma sputters a target material that is being deposited on a substrate. The effects of RF power applied to Li2O and LiAlSiO2 targets, the deposition time, rotation of the substrate and heat treatment on Li-ion conductivity of 169 samples of one library have been studied. The XPS tests showed that RF coating contains Li2O, Li2CO3, LiAl0.18Si0.13O1.22, LiAl0.67Si0.41O2.49 and LiAl1.17Si0.71O3.93 compounds. The non-stoichiometric lithium aluminum silicates are amorphous as displayed in the XRD patterns. The room-temperature conductivity of sputtered about 350nm-thick LiAlxSiyOz film varies from 10-8 to 10-7S/cm depending on the stoichiometry. The conductivity vs. temperature plots show Arrhenius behavior. The activation energy found for the bulk conductivity is 22kJ/mol and for the grain boundaries- 55kJ/mol. The substrate morphology influences the fabricated film morphology and grain boundaries conductivity. The second method is spray pyrolysis, based on simultaneous spraying of different precursors solutions from a multi-head nozzle on a substrate. This is followed by pyrolysis and oxidation. The preparation of multi-component solid electrolytes library by spray pyrolysis is a novel approach. Despite relatively low density of the LixLayPO4 ceramics, preliminary ionic conductivities, were found to vary from 2*10-7 to 4*10-5 S cm−1.

Correlated TKD/EDS - TEM - APT analysis on selected interfaces of CoSi2 thin films

Correlative analysis is a powerful way to relate crystallographic and chemical information to the properties of materials. In this work, a procedure is proposed to select and analyze interfaces of polycrystalline thin film materials through correlative transmission Kikuchi diffraction/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (TKD/EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT). TKD provides information on the crystallographic orientation. The EDS analysis performed together with TKD in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) makes chemical information available allowing phases of similar crystal structure, but with a different composition to be distinguished. The information of TKD/EDS can be correlated to successive TEM and APT analysis on selected interfaces for structural and chemical analysis at the atomic scale. An interface of an epitaxial orientated grain of a polycrystalline CoSi2 thin film on (111)Si is selected and analyzed. The selected interface has a twin character and shows facets of different orientation and area. Site-specific segregation of Ge to junctions of the facets is evidenced. The correlation between local strain from misfit (defects) at the interface and segregation is discussed.

An XPS investigation on the influence of the substrate and growth conditions on pyrite thin films surface composition

Abstract Pyrite thin films have been prepared by sulfuration of Fe thin films deposited on sodalime glass substrates. Sulfuration temperatures have ranged from 200 °C to 500 °C and sulfuration time has been 20 h in all cases. It has been found that, during the sulfuration process, Na from the substrate diffuses through the formed pyrite thin film and reaches its surface where it reacts with some components of the sulfuration atmosphere to form sodium sulfate (Na 2 SO 4 ). The Na concentration at the film surface has been measured as a function of the film sulfuration temperature. Obtained experimental data show that Na surface concentration increases up to a sulfuration temperature of 350 °C but, on passing from this temperature to 400 °C, a drastic reduction is produced. For higher sulfuration temperatures ( T s > 400 ° C) the Na surface concentration slightly increases. Besides, a chemical variation of the pyrite surface composition related to an excess of sulfur is measured as a function of the sulfuration temperature showing a quite parallel behavior to that shown by the Na surface concentration. This excess of sulfur appears regardless the type of substrate (sodalima glass, alumina or amorphous quartz) used. The obtained results have been correlated with the variations of other parameters (grain and crystallite size, thickness, etc.) of the sulfurated films. After these investigations, it has been concluded that the Na concentration evolution at the film surface closely reflects the pyrite thin film grain crystallization (and size) which takes place during the sulfuration process. As a consequence, it is proposed that a change of the Na diffusion mechanism through the film (from diffusion through the grain boundaries to diffusion through the grain bulk) takes place at the indicated critical sulfuration temperatures. The reported excess of sulfur might be also related to this crystallization, although no further evidence has been obtained from our results. The consequences of this conclusion are discussed on the light of present pyrite thin film knowledge, mainly those aspects concerning to possible doping effects of Na and electrical transport processes in pyrite thin films.

Benign Pinholes in CsPbIBr2 Absorber Film Enable Efficient Carbon-Based, All-Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells

Pinholes in absorber films are traditionally thought to degrade the performance of perovskite solar cells. The pursuit of efficient cells, especially the large-area ones, has thus mainly focused on realizing full-coverage absorber films. Herein, we demonstrate that such a paradigm can be broken in carbon-based, all-inorganic perovskite solar cells, by taking CsPbIBr2 absorber film as an example. It is revealed that pinholes in one-step solution-processed CsPbIBr2 film will not form detrimental shutting paths in the ultimate cell when the film is relatively thick (∼700 nm). We link this surprising finding to the fact that the raw carbon paste cannot penetrate the pinholes during screen-printing deposition of the carbon electrode due to its sticky nature. More importantly, such pinholes are in favor of the formation of desirable crystalline grains in CsPbIBr2 film, thereby inducing greatly suppressed carrier recombination. Consequently, the cells based on CsPbIBr2 films containing benign pinholes yield the ...

Effect of Sn Film Grain Size and Thickness on Kinetics of Spontaneous Sn Whisker Growth

The effects of the grain size and thickness of Sn films on the kinetics of spontaneous Sn whisker growth have been quantitatively analyzed separately. The results reveal that the length and diameter of the whiskers are related to the parameters of the Sn film. A thicker film has a stronger influence on the whisker morphology than does the grain size. When the biaxial stress in the film reached a steady state, the growth rate was dependent on the grain size and thickness of the film. An equation is proposed to calculate the spontaneous growth rate of Sn whiskers in correlation with the dimension and microstructure of the Sn film. Spontaneous Sn whisker growth can be suppressed by increasing the thickness and grain size of the film.

Ferroelectricity of HfxZr1−xO2 thin films fabricated by 300 °C low temperature process with plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition

We investigated the characteristics of 10-nm-thick ferroelectric Hf0.43Zr0.57O2 (HZO) thin films fabricated using plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) at 300 °C with plasma O2 gas and a post metallization annealing (PMA) process at 300–400 °C. The as-grown HZO film had a nanocrystalline structure (5–10 nm) with ferroelectric orthorhombic, tetragonal, and cubic (O/T/C) phases, and the PMA process subsequently led to the crystal growth of O/T/C phases along the nanocrystals in the as-grown film. As a result, the 300 °C-PMA-treated HZO film exhibited excellent remanent polarization (2Pr = Pr+ − Pr−) and dielectric constant (k) of 34 μC/cm2 and 39, respectively. These results suggest that the formation of the nanocrystal grains in as-grown HZO film could play an important role in the fabrication of HZO films with the metastable O/T/C phases during a low temperature fabrication process at 300 °C to obtain a superior ferroelectricity.

Impact of Grain Sizes on Programmable Memory Characteristics in Two-Dimensional Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Memory.

Recently, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites (OIHPs) have been used in resistive switching memory applications because of current-voltage hysteresis that originated from ion migration in the perovskite film. As the density of the memory devices continues to increase, the size of the devices approaches that of the individual grains of the polycrystalline films. Thus, the effects of the grain boundary and the grain size will become important to investigate the influence on the switching behaviors. Here, we report the effects of grain sizes on the resistive switching property of (C4H9NH3)2PbBr4 (BA2PbBr4) films. The BA2PbBr4 films were formed by using sequential vapor deposition. First, a lead bromide (PbBr2) film was deposited by thermal evaporation, and then the film was exposed to organic vapor to form BA2PbBr4 films. The grain sizes were controlled by changing the transformation temperatures ( TT = 100, 150, and 200 °C). When the TT values were 100, 150, and 200 °C, the grain sizes of BA2PbBr4 were ∼180 nm, ∼1, and ∼30 μm, respectively. In the memory device based on BA2PbBr4, the off current decreased from ∼10-4 to ∼10-8 A as the grain size increased from ∼180 nm to ∼30 μm. This method to synthesize BA2PbBr4 films provides a simple way to control the grain sizes, and understanding of the effects of grain sizes on memory characteristics will provide an insight to improve the reliability of the OIHP-based memory as the electronic devices are scaled down to the sizes of grains.

MICROSTRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTY CHARACTERIZATION OF MULTILAYER FREE-STANDING DIAMOND/Mo FILMS

The monolayer diamond film and free-standing diamond/Mo multilayer films were prepared by combining microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) and double glow plasma surface alloying (DGPSA) techniques. The result shows that the film grain size decreases from 70–80[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m to [Formula: see text]–20[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m with the layer number increasing from the monolayer diamond film with a columnar crystal structure to the seven-layer diamond/Mo films, indicating that the Mo interlayer can effectively reduce the grain size. The Mo2C is formed between the Mo and diamond layers, which can improve the bonding strength. The internal stress of these films depends on the number of Mo interlayers and the Mo2C content. Moreover, the fracture strength and abrasion ratio of multilayer diamond films are effectively improved by adding the Mo interlayer. The four-layer diamond/Mo film system has the highest fracture strength and the seven-layer film system has the highest abrasion ratio.

Ag Thin Film Dewetting Prevention by Ion Implantation

AbstractIon implantation is applied here to prevent metallic silver (Ag) thin films from dewetting on a sapphire substrate during annealing. In these experiments, silicon (Si) and indium (In) atoms are implanted into Ag thin films grown directly on sapphire, which are then annealed for different time periods to introduce film dewetting. It is observed that trace amounts of 1014 cm−2 dopants significantly retard the film grain growth, alter the film surface wetting features, and trivially influence the electrical and optical performance of the original film. A grain growth model with the presence of solute species is introduced here, combined with a thermodynamic simulation of film dewetting. It is found that doping ions introduce solute drag into Ag grains thereby significantly retarding the grain growth by generating a limiting grain size. The shrunken grains then alter the film surface energy distribution, transferring the most stable state from the dewetting phase to the wetting phase. The approach provides a novel strategy to suppress metallic thin films from dewetting with high stability, durability, and insignificant impact on the film performance without using an adhesion layer and also potentially expands the thermal processing window for metallic thin films.

Correlating thermoelectric (Bi,Sb)2Te3 film electric transport properties with microstructure

The room temperature electronic transport properties of 1 μm thick Bi0.4Sb1.6Te3 (BST) films correlate with overall microstructural quality. Films with homogeneous composition are deposited onto fused silica substrates, capped with SiN to prevent both oxidation and Te loss, and postannealed to temperatures ranging from 200 to 450 °C. BST grain sizes and (00l) orientations improve dramatically with annealing to 375 °C, with smaller increases to 450 °C. Tiny few-nanometer-sized voids in the as-deposited film grain boundaries coalesce into larger void sizes up to 300 nm with annealing to 350 °C; the smallest voids continue coalescing with annealing to 450 °C. These voids are decorated with few-nanometer-sized Sb clusters that increase in number with increasing annealing temperatures, reducing the Sb content of the remaining BST film matrix. Resistivity decreases linearly with increasing temperature over the entire range studied, consistent with improving crystalline quality. The Seebeck coefficient also improves with crystalline quality to 350 °C, above which void coalescence and reduced Sb content from the BST matrix correlate with a decrease in the Seebeck coefficient. Nevertheless, a plateau exists for an optimal power factor between 350 and 450 °C, implying thermal stability to higher temperatures than previously reported.

Coherent-x-Ray Imaging of Nanoparticle Alloy Electrodes and Catalysts

Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) studies of silver nanoparticles revealed a new dissolution mechanism that has not previously been observed.1 We find that a long incubation time, ~30 sec, before start dissolution reaction when the particle starts from the pristine state. During the incubation period, however, electrochemical potential-induced pressure nucleates a dislocation loop within the nanoparticle that eventually exposes to the surface. Only then, rapid dissolution is activated at the surface sites. This result points to an important connection between structure and stability of silver in an electrochemical environment and demonstrates the potential of BCDI to elucidate this relationship. Understanding silver dissolution process is important in studying dealloying process of binary alloys. Dealloying is a selective dissolution of one element in an alloy resulting in a porous, strained structure often with new properties, such as highly active electrocatalysts.2 In the past, the pore formation during dealloying has been visualized using electron microscopy and the dealloying-induced strain has been studied at the ensemble level using x-ray diffraction.3 However, the information on lattice strain, which has been unavailable, could play an integral role in understanding and controlling properties and activities for a variety of applications. In our BCDI studies, 3D strain distributions of individual nanoparticles and thin film grains of silver-gold alloys were investigated during dealloying in nitric acid.4 Isolated particles exhibit dramatic changes in their shapes as expected (See the graphical abstract). Our results (not shown) also demonstrate that significant local strains occur as a result of dealloying. The same dealloying process was used for nanoscale grains of a thin film instead of the isolated nanoparticles. The results show that isolated nanoparticles are significantly more strained than the grain embedded in the film texture,4 primarily because strain can be relieved via grain boundaries in the case of the single grain. These observations demonstrate that the unique capabilities of BCDI techniques. We also have begun working on alloys under catalytic environment where the compositions and shapes of alloy nanoparticles are highly sensitive to gas and temperature environment. We will present some preliminary results as time permits in my presentation. Liu, Y., et al., Nano Letters (2017) 17 (3), 1595Erlebacher, J., et al., Nature (2001) 410 (6827), 450Yang, R. Z., et al., Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2011) 115 (18), 9074Cha, W., et al., Advanced Functional Materials (2017) 27 (25) Figure 1