AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition
    In Situ Microscopy and Spectroscopy Topical Conference Wednesday Sessions
       Session IS+AS+NS+MI-WeM

Invited Paper IS+AS+NS+MI-WeM9
In Situ TEM Studies of Nanomagnetism and Thermal Transport

Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 10:40 am, Room Acoma

Session: In Situ Microscopy/Spectroscopy – In Situ Nanoscale Processes
Presenter: J. Cumings, University of Maryland
Correspondent: Click to Email
The transmission electron microscope is a powerful tool for many areas of nanoscience. The combination of high spatial resolution and high time resolution, giving video-rate imaging, makes it uniquely capable of many types of studies of phenomena in-situ during imaging. Here I will present two areas where we have made recent advances. In nanomagnetic structures, it is possible to image in real-time the reversal process of coupled systems called artificial spin ice. These systems exhibit frustration, leaving disorder in their lowest energy magnetic configurations. I will present studies showing the magnetic reversal processes for these structures, revealing that microscopically correlated events lead to avalanche phenomena. A second topic that I will present is electron thermal microscopy of carbon nanotubes. Here, a new technique will be introduced that allows thermal imaging with nanoscale spatial resolution. This technique has been used to study the thermal transport through carbon nanotubes, and I will present results showing that thermal contact resistance can limit the thermal transport in nanotubes. I will show that this contact resistance can be tuned by two orders of magnitude by appropriately controlling the fabrication of the contacts. Together these results serve to demonstrate the capabilities of studies utilizing in-situ transmission electron microscopy.