Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Measuring material properties is critical to understanding the behavior of contemporary nanostructured materials. In this paper, we show that as a consequence of the universal binding energy relation (UBER), universal features and strong scaling correlations exist between the volume plasmon energy and cohesive energy, valence electron density, elastic constants and hardness of various materials with metallic and covalent bonding. Based on these relations, we propose novel techniques that allow direct measurement and imaging of material properties in situ using valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy combined with energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy. This is illustrated by evaluation of elastic and cohesive properties of individual metastable nanoprecipitates in structural alloys and hardness of diesel-engine soot particles. The results demonstrate that new plasmon spectro-microscopic techniques have the potential to determine quantitatively and image multiple solid-state properties at the nanoscale, establishing a new capability for material research.