A new class of castable cerium strengthened aluminum alloys has phenomenal high temperature properties without the need for heat treatment.

Functional porous materials are of increasing importance in energy conversion and catalysis. Improved analysis is needed to guide optimization. Four-dimensional (4D) imaging [chemical mapping in three-dimensional (3D) by spectro-tomography] of an Al 2 O 3 aerogel coated with ZnO by atomic layer deposition was performed using soft X-ray ptychography at the Zn L-edge. A two-dimensional spatial resolution of 14(2) nm was achieved. Visualizations of the 3D chemical structure are provided. The degree of ZnO coverage of the surface of the Al 2 O 3 aerogel framework in two different samples was estimated and found to be both thicker and less homogeneous than expected. Other analyses of the 4D results, including the degree of contact between Al 2 O 3 and ZnO, were extracted from the reconstructed 3D data. This pioneering soft X-ray spectro-ptycho-tomography study will anchor further studies of functional porous materials.

Above room temperature, the accumulation of radiation damage in 3C-SiC is strongly influenced by dynamic defect interaction processes and remains poorly understood. Here, we use a combination of ion channeling and transmission electron microscopy to study lattice disorder in 3C-SiC irradiated with 500 keV Ar ions in the temperature range of 25–250 °C. Results reveal sigmoidal damage buildup for all the temperatures studied. For 150 °C and below, the damage level monotonically increases with ion dose up to amorphization. Starting at 200 °C, the shape of damage–depth profiles becomes anomalous, with the damage peak narrowing and moving to larger depths and an additional shoulder forming close to the ion end of range. As a result, damage buildup curves for 200 and 250 °C exhibit an anomalous two-step shape, with a damage saturation stage followed by rapid amorphization above a critical ion dose, suggesting a nucleation-limited amorphization behavior. Despite their complexity, all damage buildup curves are well described by a phenomenological model based on an assumption of a linear dependence of the effective amorphization cross section on ion dose. In contrast to the results of previous studies, 3C-SiC can be amorphized by bombardment with 500 keV Ar ions even at 250 °C with a relatively large dose rate of ∼2×1013 cm−2 s−1, revealing a dominant role of defect interaction dynamics at elevated temperatures.