In situ measurement of the orientation matrices for the austenite and martensite phases of the alloy Cu₂₅Au₃₀Zn₄₅ across the interface was performed by synchrotron x-ray Laue microdiffraction at the ALS. Together with theoretical calculations, researchers verified directly and quantitatively the factors that contribute to the alloy’s elastically compatible interface, which ultimately leads to the ultralow fatigue property of phase transformation in martensitic materials. The approach can be generalized to characterize the evolution of microstructure when the transport properties are sensitive to the structural compatibility at the heterogenous phase boundaries. Read more »

As information bits of 0s and 1s are stored in crosspoint tantalum oxide memristors, or resistive random access memory (RRAM) cells, nanoscale-resolution in operando x-ray transmission spectromicroscopy is used to directly observe oxygen migration and clustering, revealing an important operation and failure mechanism of RRAM, a frontrunner technology for next-generation computer memory. Read more »

The nearly simultaneous Mott (electronic) and Peierls (structural) transitions in vanadium dioxide are of significant scientific interest and have tremendous technological promise in computing, memory, optics, and micromechanics. The cover features nanoscale-resolution maps of the Mott and Peierls transitions imaged simultaneously by Kumar et al. using state-of-the-art in situ STXM at the ALS. Read more »