Crackling noise microscopy

Abstract

Crackling noise is a scale-invariant phenomenon found in various driven nonlinear dynamical material systems as a response to external stimuli such as force or external fields. Jerky material movements in the form of avalanches can span many orders of magnitude in size and follow universal scaling rules described by power laws. The concept was originally studied as Barkhausen noise in magnetic materials and now is used in diverse fields from earthquake research and building materials monitoring to fundamental research involving phase transitions and neural networks. Here, we demonstrate a method for nanoscale crackling noise measurements based on AFM nanoindentation, where the AFM probe can be used to study the crackling of individual nanoscale features, a technique we call crackling noise microscopy. The method is successfully applied to investigate the crackling of individual topological defects, i.e. ferroelectric domain walls. We show that critical exponents for avalanches are altered at these nanoscale features, leading to a suppression of mixed-criticality, which is otherwise present in domains. The presented concept opens the possibility of investigating the crackling of individual nanoscale features in a wide range of material systems.

Acoustic emission of kidney stones: a medical adaptation of statistical breakdown mechanisms

“…An understanding of the main ways in which different types of stones fragment should allow us to adapt the technologies we have to fragment stones, and to individualise the settings of these technologies for known stone types. The composition of stones may be known pre-operatively, from a previous stone analysis, for example, or from intra-operative identification of the stone by, for example, artificial intelligence and image processing techniques [ 63 – 72 ] or the application of an AFM probe at the start of surgery, can measure nanoscale crackling noise based on AFM nanoindentation, a technique that has been called crackling noise microscopy [ 73 ].…”

“…First, smaller detectors can be developed and used in in situ experiments. The most advanced technology is to use AFM needles as indenters to determine the avalanche spectrum [ 73 ].…”