The production of Athenian fine ware pottery, produced between the 6th and 4th centuries B.C., required alternating the high‐temperature kiln between oxidative and reductive environments during a single firing to create the iconic red and black decorative scenes. Here, we show that the production of this pottery was even more complex, with vessels subjected to two, or possibly more, firings in the kiln, with applications of slip between each firing. On a representative sherd, we compared three painted black decorative features—relief line, contour line, and background slip. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) of the slips revealed that the relief line had a more melted microstructure than either the contour line or background slip. By characterizing the chemistry and micromorphology of the slips, we find that the relief line microstructure could only be produced through a separate firing, at a hotter temperature, than the other two decorative features.

We report electronic transport mapping in a single dielectric layer of a polycrystalline BaTiO3 multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) by electron beam induced current (EBIC) measurements using a scanning transmission electron microscope. Ga+ focused ion beam-lift out techniques with organometallic Pt-deposition are used to extract and electrically connect to these devices while maintaining high (>gigaohm) resistance between electrodes. Different modes of EBIC are observed depending on device resistivity. We demonstrate the use of EBIC resulting from secondary electron emission as a method for performing resistance contrast imaging (RCI), with resistive grain boundaries appearing as steps in EBIC contrast. These RCI maps are also used to calculate the potential and electric field of the device under an arbitrary bias. A mix of high- and low-resistance ohmic as well as rectifying grain boundaries is observed. These results help to better establish the distribution of resistivities critical to the prevention of performance-limiting current leakage in MLCCs.

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Pulsed laser deposition and chemical vapor deposition were used to deposit very thin silicon on multilayer graphene (MLG) on a nickel foam substrate for application as an anode material for lithium ion batteries. The as-grown material was directly fabricated into an anode without a binder, and tested in a half-cell configuration. Even under stressful voltage limits that accelerate degradation, the Si-MLG films displayed higher stability than Si-only electrodes. Post-cycling images of the anodes reveal the differences between the two material systems and emphasize the role of the graphene layers in improving adhesion and electrochemical stability of the Si.