Abstract
Over the last few years, much interest has been shown in design of new high strength steels with complex microstructures and manipulation of their properties at the nanoscale. Understanding the effects of alloying additions on the nanoscale level is essential for tailoring the steel composition and properties for a specific product requirement.
Atom probe tomography plays an important role in the characterisation of microstructural features at atomic level. This powerful technique could be used for direct experimental observations of early stages of phase transformations, clustering, fine precipitation, atmospheres around dislocations and segregation to boundaries.
An overview on recent advances in application of atom probe tomography to study thermomechanically processed transformation-induced plasticity steels and nanocrystalline bainitic steels will be presented.
Atom probe research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory SHaRE User Facility was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy.