| AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Actinides and Rare Earths Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session AC+AS+SA-ThM |
| Session: | Chemistry and Physics of the Actinides and Rare Earths |
| Presenter: | Miguel Santiago Cordoba, Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Depleted Uranium (DU) Oxide thin films are considered to be employed as surrogates and reference compounds for systematic studies on the elucidation of fundamental properties of actinide materials. The goal of this work is to compare surface morphologies of DU oxide thin films fabricated by two techniques, polymer assisted deposition (PAD) and electron beam evaporation (EBE). In this contribution, we utilized a MultiMode atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in tapping mode in order to compare and establish a contrast among the three dimensional surface structures of polycrystalline U3O8 and UO2 films fabricated by PAD, and UO2 thin films deposited by EBE. Differences in surface morphology are analyzed, and the information provided by AFM is compared against other complementary techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Reported results revealed that films fabricated by both techniques had granular structure, with morphologies strongly depending on the fabrication methods and conditions.
*Approved for public release LA-UR-16-22993