Researchers achieve extraordinary spatial resolution for in situ atomic resolution TEM using new luminary micro technique

Materials science researchers in Japan have achieved extraordinary in situ Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) experiments using a new Luminary Micro laser technique. They succeeded in recording atomic-resolution in situ movies of growing carbon nanotubes and onion-shaped carbon nanostructures. The structures were formed by laser irradiation of samples made of carbon films and iron nanoparticles.

This experiment was conducted using a JEOL 300kV Transmission Electron Microscope with a cold field emission gun, JEM-ARM300F, and a new system designed by JEOL subsidiary Integrated Dynamic Electron Solutions, Inc. for precisely focusing lasers onto TEM samples, Luminary Micro. This combination of high-performance imaging instrumentation and reduced sample motion due to precision-controlled rapid localized illumination enables extraordinary spatial resolution for in situ experiments.

The research group consists of Dr. Ryousuke Senga, Electron Microscopy Group, Nanomaterials Research Institute, Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Professor Kazutomo Suenaga, Department of Nanocharacterization for Nanostructures and Functions, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center, The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (ISIR: SANKEN), Osaka University.

The details of this research will be presented by Dr. Senga during the Microscopy and Microanalysis (M&M) 2021 Conference, held in the U. S. from the first to the fifth of August 2021.

JEOL acquired IDES, the leader and pioneer in the field of Ultrafast and Dynamic TEM, specializing in pulsed lasers and high-speed electrostatic beam blanking and deflection technologies, in 2019. IDES’ products add time resolution to the TEM's exceptional spatial resolution enabling new applications and the exploration of the dynamics of specimens across a range of very fast time scales.

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