Grant amount：\4940000 （ Direct Cost: \3800000 、 Indirect Cost：\1140000 ）

Non-destructive observation of the migration of Li ions with high spatial resolution is important. Charging and discharging cause changes in volume of electrode materials. Scanning probe microscopy can allow high resolution imaging of these volume changes, which enables us to investigate Li-ion migration without destruction.
Volume changes of LiCoO2 generated by Li insertion/extraction are very small, 10-2, and so they hardly appeared in our obtained images. However, the LiCoO2 particles were imaged as dark portions with no signal, because changes in volume in the interspace were detected. We concluded that electrolyte flux induced by the gradient of Li-ion concentration in the cathode, which was generated by charging/discharging, caused the volume changes in the interspace. Furthermore, we observed dry-out of electrolyte. The electrolyte flux and dry-out are the most important issues for increasing the energy density of batteries.

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Grant amount：\5200000 （ Direct Cost: \4000000 、 Indirect Cost：\1200000 ）

Metallic oxide thin-films made of zinc oxide and silicon oxide, for example, exhibit photochromism (PC) and electrochromism. This study developed the method to fabricate such thin films using plasma processing. Two methods were used. One was the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method and another was the plasma CVD method. By the PLD method, PC thin films were successfully fabricated on the whole surface of the 30 mm square substrate. For the CVD method, we found that the PC-transformation can be exhibited only by the zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film. The crystal structure of the ZnO PC thin films were examined by the x-ray absorption at the Zn-K edge. It is confirmed that the ionic valence around Zn atoms is changed as a result of the PC-transformation.

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Grant amount：\11830000 （ Direct Cost: \9100000 、 Indirect Cost：\2730000 ）

3-D measurement method by SEM has already been proposed by using the principle of shadow moire. In the method, the image of original grid in shadow moire image must be clearly removed in fringe analysis process in order to perform high resolution analysis. A new method based on the principle of projection moire is proposed to solve the trouble concerning the grid. In this study, the mechanism of producing some shadows of grid on the surface of the object by back scattering electron beam in the new method is discussed. Fringe image as shadow of grid is analyzed by Fringe scanning technology. 3-D precise measurement is realized by using the phenomenon of shadows of grid. Furthermore, a 3-D micro structure is measured. From comparison with results by AFM, it is confirmed that the proposed method has high-resolution power(about 20nm).

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