MRI: Development of a Dynamic Environmental Transmission Electron Microscope

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This award to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is for the development of a dynamic environmental transmission electron microscope (TEM). Application of in-situ electron microscopy techniques to study dynamic processes with temporal resolution from millisecond to ultrafast regimes can contribute immensely to the understanding of phase transformations and chemical interactions in a wide range of material systems impacting a broad range of research topics at the forefront of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science. To enable such studies, this development project will build upon the technologies of environmental TEM and high speed (khz frame-rate) - high performance CMOS pixel sensors and integrate pulsed laser and gas flow technologies on-site to develop time-resolved, in-situ, electron imaging and diffraction capabilities. The instrument will enable studies such as chemical reactions and rapid phase changes of supported nanoparticles, oxygen reduction in electrochemical energy conversion, ferroelectric domain switching, nucleation and growth of semiconductor nanowires, and degradation mechanisms in lithium-ion batteries. Through the use of liquid cells and the direct electron detection CMOS sensing low electron dose, in vivo, electron imaging of native peptides and cells will also be enabled. Electron microscopy plays a critical role in the development of new materials for technology, energy, and medicine by providing chemical and structural information at high spatial resolution. The development of in-situ electron microscopy with fast and ultrafast time resolutions will open broad new areas of enquiry to researchers. The proposed instrument will be housed and become one of the featured tools in the Center for the Microanalysis of Materials (CMM) at the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) Central facilities at the University of Illinois. The CMM is an open access facility with dedicated staff that serves more than 850 users from over a 100 research groups across 30 departments at Illinois as well as researchers from other institutions throughout the nation. The MRL's facilities support Illinois' academic mission with instruments utilized in several university course offerings and each year hosts a tutorial characterization workshop facilitating the 'hands-on' training of a large number of graduate students and professional scientists from all over the world. The shared instrumentation is also an important resource for the Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs in Physics, Material Science, Chemistry, and Engineering, with many undergraduate students getting their first training in the use of advanced instrumentation. The proposed instrument will be integrated into these training activities. Moreover, this new instrument will contribute to the materials research 'ecosystem' which serves as a model of how to integrate first principle materials design, nano-fabrication, nano-characterization and computation.