Printable research introduction of our laboratory is HERE

To improve high-temperature structural materials for power generators and other applications, the properties of these materials at high temperatures must be understood. 　Thus, we are conducting research using an ultrahigh-temperature special tensile/compressive tester and transmission electron microscopes to elucidate the high-temperature deformation mechanism of crystalline materials, to clarify the correlation of the mechanism with the microstructure, and to establish guidelines for designing materials with superior properties.

Properties of crystalline materials are strongly dependent on nanostructures such as crystallographic orientations, grain-boundary structures, dispersion of precipitates and dislocation arrangements. From this point of view, we investigate atomic-scale nanostructures by high-resolution electron microscopy and computer simulations such as molecular dynamics, and clarify relationships between the nanostructures and material properties and related phenomena such as plastic deformation and phase transformations. Recently, we intensively apply scanning transmission electron microscopy and three-dimensional electron tomography to analyses of crystalline defects in advanced materials such as dislocations, grain boundaries, precipitates, etc.

The mechanical and electrical properties of crystalline materials strongly depend on the crystal orientation and the grain boundary structure. We have determined the surface energies and grain boundary energies of various materials and have clarified their atomic and electronic structures using computer simulations. We have also directly observed the atomic structure of an actual crystal grain boundary using a transmission electron microscope at a very high magnification, approximately one million times.