Mineralized tissues, such as bone and tooth dentin, serve as structural materials in the human body and, as such, have evolved to resist fracture. In assessing their quantitative fracture resistance or toughness, it is important to distinguish between intrinsic toughening mechanisms which function ahead of the crack tip, such as plasticity in metals, and extrinsic mechanisms which function primarily behind the tip, such as crack bridging in ceramics. Bone and dentin derive their resistance to fracture principally from extrinsic toughening mechanisms which have their origins in the hierarchical microstructure of these mineralized tissues. Experimentally, quantification of these toughening mechanisms requires a crack-growth resistance approach, which can be achieved by measuring the crack-driving force, e.g., the stress intensity, as a function of crack extension ("R-curve approach"). Here this methodology is used to study of the effect of aging on the fracture properties of human cortical bone and human dentin in order to discern the microstructural origins of toughness in these materials.

Amorphous carbon films are used as protective coatings on magnetic media to protect the magnetic layer from wear and abrasion caused by the read/write head during hard disk drive start-up and operation. A key requirement in increasing the storage capacity and reliability of hard-disk drives is improving the performance of these coatings. This cooperative agreement used optical characterization techniques developed at LBNL to study thin-film hard disk media produced by Seagate Technology, major US hard drive manufacturer. The chief scientific goal was relating quantitatively the results of the optical characterization to the underlying chemical structure of the overcoat. In a collaboration with Seagate, LBNL, and Cambridge University, optical and electron-based characterization were used to evaluate the chemical structure of overcoats. The sp3 fraction of the sputtered amorphous carbon films was measured quantitatively for the first time and related to the optical spectroscopy results. This work and other selected aspects of the research performed under the agreement were presented at technical meetings and published in the open literature. The chief technical goal was designing manufacturing processes for the protective carbon overcoat for use in new generations of Seagate disk drives. To this end, joint research carried out under this agreement enabled Seagate to speed development of new coatings which are currently being used in the production of disk media in Seagate's disk-media manufacturing plants in Fremont, CA.

The objective of this project was to determine why diamond-based films are unusually efficient electron emitters (field emission cathodes) at room temperature. Efficient cathodes based on diamond are being developed by SI Diamond Technology (SIDT) as components for bright, sunlight-readable, flat panel displays. When the project started, it was known that only a small fraction (<1 percent) of the cathode area is active in electron emission and that the emission sites themselves are sub-micron in size. The critical challenge of this project was to develop new microcharacterization methods capable of examining known emission sites. The research team used a combination of cathode emission imaging (developed at SIDT), micro-Raman spectroscopy (LBNL), and electron microscopy and spectroscopy (National Center for Electron Microscopy, LBNL) to examine the properties of known emission sites. The most significant accomplishment of the project was the development at LBNL of a very high resolution scanning probe that, for the first time, measured simultaneously the topography and electrical characteristics of single emission sites. The increased understanding of the emission mechanism helped SIDT to develop a new cathode material,"nano-diamond," which they have incorporated into their Field Emission Picture Element (FEPix) product. SIDT is developing large-format flat panel displays based on these picture elements that will be brighter and more efficient than existing outdoor displays such as Jumbotrons. The energy saving that will be realized if field emission displays are introduced commercially is in line with the energy conservation mission of DOE. The unique characterization tools developed in this project (particularly the new scanning microscopy method) are being used in ongoing BES-funded basic research.