The LEAP® Microscope is particularly well suited to materials and metals analysis for characterizing and understanding:

• Grain boundary segregation
• Precipitate size, composition and distribution
• Nanocyrstallization in amorphous alloys
• Precipitate vs. bulk composition

To view a larger image, click on the image caption. To read about an application in more detail, please click on the title above the thumbnail or click on the Read More link..

Nickel-base superalloys have long been prized for their high strength and corrosion resistance at elevated temperatures for use primarily in aviation jet engines. Ordered gamma prime-Ni3(Al,Cr) precipitates such as the one shown to the left are responsible for the high-temperature strength of nickel-base superalloys.

Read More...

Mn addition to electrodeposited Ni film, showing segregation to grain boundry and second phase particles.

LEAP image of a heat-resistant ferritic steel that used coherent (Ni,Fe) Al precipitates in a ferritic matrix to achieve good high temperature mechanical properties

The properties of steels can be dramatically changed by the presence of small quantities of certain elements, especially in the boundaries between a material's crystalline grains, called grain boundaries. Scientists have found that changes in properties can be related to changes in structure and composition at the microscopic level. Thus, metallurgists were excited about the potential of atom probe to characterize the structure and composition of steels at the highest possible spatial resolution. Read More...