Metallic Glass Microwire Defects Detection Using Dynamic Nanorobotic Control

Metallic glass (MG) microwires are unique material with great potentials for sensor, actuator, biomaterial, etc., owing to its advanced mechanical properties. Yet, the defects on its surface, which seriously affected its performance, are still very difficult to be investigated due to the lack of precise manipulation and flexible imaging techniques. Herein, we report an in situ detection method for MG microwire by integrating the automatic image processing and a rotational nanorobotic system. First, the MG microwire is fixed on the self-developed rotational nanorobotic system and assembled inside scanning electron microscope. Then, a dynamic control strategy is proposed to rotate the MG microwire by 360°, then to realize the full-orientation imaging of the MG microwire. Meanwhile, defect detection method is utilized to identify the defects on the MG microwire during rotation. The results indicate that our method can identify spine and embossment defects of the sample after manufacturing. This research offers a powerful tool for the MG microwire defect detection, which can be adopted to proceed guidance for improving metallic glass microwire' manufacturing process.