Achievement

Travis Wade is learning to use the state-of-the-art microscopy equipment at Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) and the Georgia Institute of Technology as part of his IGERT sponsored internship. He has shown that the performance of diamond field emission tips is not solely a function of geometry, and is seeking to understand the factors which affect electron emission. Travis is being trained to perform transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation using a focused ion beam (FIB) in order to characterize the crystalline structure of the apex of pyramidal diamond tip emitter arrays. To date, collaborative efforts at ORNL have enabled the extraction of a tip from its array substrate and its attachment to a TEM grid. In the near future, the crystal orientation and location of grain boundaries will be investigated using TEM and a laser assisted position sensitive atom probe. This IGERT internship provides training on instruments that are not currently available at Vanderbilt.