News Article
New TEM enables view of sub-atomic details
A new transmission electron microscope (TEM) for the imaging and analysis of materials with atomic resolution has now been successfully installed at the caesar Institute in Bonn.
A new transmission electron microscope (TEM) for the imaging and analysis of materials with atomic resolution has now been successfully installed at the caesar Institute in Bonn.
The CRISP (= Corrected Illumination Scanning TEM Probe) system from the Nano Technology Systems Division of Carl Zeiss SMT utilises a variety of combined electron-optical innovations. These include, above all, an imaging energy filter from the ZEISS 200kV LIBRA 200 instrument generation, supplemented with an electrostatic electron monochromator and an aberration-corrected illumination system. This technology provides the research scientists at caesar with unparalleled insights into the innermost properties of materials.
Dr. Stephan Irsen, responsible for electron microscopy at the caesar Institute, was highly satisfied at the successful acceptance of the CRISP microscope: “The instrument features outstanding imaging and spectroscopic possibilities and provides our researchers and partners with images of atomic structures during scanning operation and a spectroscopic characterisation of the atomic specimen structures at the highest level."
Dr. Dirk Stenkamp, Member of the Board at Carl Zeiss SMT and Vice President & General Manager of the Nano Technology Systems Division, is convinced that CRISP marks the successful beginning of a series of upcoming installations of high-performance electron microscopes from ZEISS: “In recent years, we have invested heavily in the enhancement of our TEM systems and, in cooperation with our demanding key customers, taken their development to the limits of what is technologically feasible. Additionally, we have achieved a level of user-friendliness, specimen throughput and system stability that sets the standard even when compared with international competitors.”
A special CRISP application in addition to the established projection imaging of the specimen structure is the possibility of scanning the object with an atomic-sized electron probe and scanning an image of the specimen using the specimen signal generated in the process (scanning TEM). In doing so, the special corrector in the CRISP illumination system leads to an improvement of the spatial resolution down to atomic resolution, i.e. it is possible to image atoms at a distance of less than one ten millionth of a millimeter (= 1 Angstrom). Furthermore, the corrector permits the use of a beam current that is a factor of 10 higher than standard systems, which significantly improves the reliability of chemical analyses and the acquisition time of the measurements.
A monochromator, which reduces the energy width of the electron beam from its original 800meV to 150meV, has been added to the technological highlights of the CRISP. This reduces chromatic aberrations in the image and permits the sustained increase of the spectroscopic resolution of the microscope. Furthermore, this enables energy resolution during the chemical element analysis using electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS/ELNS) that could only be achieved in the past with synchrotron radiation.
The CRISP (= Corrected Illumination Scanning TEM Probe) system from the Nano Technology Systems Division of Carl Zeiss SMT utilises a variety of combined electron-optical innovations. These include, above all, an imaging energy filter from the ZEISS 200kV LIBRA 200 instrument generation, supplemented with an electrostatic electron monochromator and an aberration-corrected illumination system. This technology provides the research scientists at caesar with unparalleled insights into the innermost properties of materials.
Dr. Stephan Irsen, responsible for electron microscopy at the caesar Institute, was highly satisfied at the successful acceptance of the CRISP microscope: “The instrument features outstanding imaging and spectroscopic possibilities and provides our researchers and partners with images of atomic structures during scanning operation and a spectroscopic characterisation of the atomic specimen structures at the highest level."
Dr. Dirk Stenkamp, Member of the Board at Carl Zeiss SMT and Vice President & General Manager of the Nano Technology Systems Division, is convinced that CRISP marks the successful beginning of a series of upcoming installations of high-performance electron microscopes from ZEISS: “In recent years, we have invested heavily in the enhancement of our TEM systems and, in cooperation with our demanding key customers, taken their development to the limits of what is technologically feasible. Additionally, we have achieved a level of user-friendliness, specimen throughput and system stability that sets the standard even when compared with international competitors.”
A special CRISP application in addition to the established projection imaging of the specimen structure is the possibility of scanning the object with an atomic-sized electron probe and scanning an image of the specimen using the specimen signal generated in the process (scanning TEM). In doing so, the special corrector in the CRISP illumination system leads to an improvement of the spatial resolution down to atomic resolution, i.e. it is possible to image atoms at a distance of less than one ten millionth of a millimeter (= 1 Angstrom). Furthermore, the corrector permits the use of a beam current that is a factor of 10 higher than standard systems, which significantly improves the reliability of chemical analyses and the acquisition time of the measurements.
A monochromator, which reduces the energy width of the electron beam from its original 800meV to 150meV, has been added to the technological highlights of the CRISP. This reduces chromatic aberrations in the image and permits the sustained increase of the spectroscopic resolution of the microscope. Furthermore, this enables energy resolution during the chemical element analysis using electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS/ELNS) that could only be achieved in the past with synchrotron radiation.
