The Development of Nanoscale Characterisation of Beam-Sensitive Materials using cryo- and low-dose STEM

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Advances in electron microscopy over the past twenty years have provided new means by which we can investigate, using 4D STEM, the nanoscale structure of a vast range of 'soft' materials previously impossible to examine at such lengthscales. This has been driven primarily by developments in detector technology, computational power and the ease with which we can interface with the microscope. This project builds on these advances and focusses on optimising acquisition strategies to maximise data quality without significant damage to the sample. The project has a number of clear objectives including the design of a new intermediate temperature cold holder to enable ice-free low dose cryoSTEM, the implementation and optimisation of 'smart' scanning coupled with in-painting reconstructions and a greater understanding of the critical dose (and dose-rate) as applied to soft materials. Alongside these technical developments, a series of model systems will be studied including pharmaceuticals, hybrid inorganic-organic structures and polymers.