Novel nuclear materials characterization workflows enabled by fs-laser milling

Research to support nuclear energy development faces many challenges. Understanding material microstructures is not only essential to predicting and understanding the in-service performance of materials used in nuclear energy production, but also in understanding aging and corrosion of these materials as they interact with their environment. However, microstructural characterization of nuclear materials poses unique obstacles. Unique materials and material combinations push traditional microstructural evaluation techniques to their limits. Radioactive samples make normally routine microstructural characterization tasks much more complex. Precious samples force rigorous, multi-scale analysis workflows. And, materials that face and must endure uniquely harsh operational environments increase the demands for deep microstructural understandings. In this context, multiscale characterization workflows and the technology that supports them play an integral role in advancing materials development for nuclear energy production. The advent of the femtosecond (fs) laser and its application to material ablation tasks has proven to be a game changer for materials research. With their extremely rapid milling rates (orders of magnitude faster than traditional ion beam approaches) and minimal heat affected zone (HAZ), the fs-laser has brought about a renaissance in advanced materials characterization capabilitie