A new approach to SEM in-situ thermomechanical experiments through automation

Experiments within the scanning electron microscope (SEM) are increasingly being carried out to observe microstructural evolution under applied strain and/or temperature. In-situ experiments allow phenomena to be observed that would be missed during post-mortem analysis. However, in-situ experiments are traditionally limited by being very labour intensive with an operator required throughout, restricting experiments to what can be achieved within working hours. Here, we present a fully integrated, automated solution that can carry out complex experiments without user intervention. With this solution experiments can be programmed with specific experimental conditions such as strain and heating and cooling rates with data acquisition parameters to track and collect data across statistically relevant regions. Three case studies are presented to demonstrate the solution's flexibility: multi-region strain mapping during mechanical loading, chemical mapping of the dissolution and coarsening of phases at high temperature, and orientation mapping during mechanical loading to understand deformation and grain rotation.