MRI: Development of a Dynamic Environmental Transmission Electron Microscope

该奖项授予伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校，以表彰其在动态环境透射电子显微镜（TEM）方面的发展。应用原位电子显微镜技术来研究从毫秒到超快的时间分辨率的动态过程，可以极大地有助于理解各种材料系统中的相变和化学相互作用，影响化学，物理和材料科学前沿的广泛研究课题。为了实现这些研究，该开发项目将建立在环境TEM和高速（khz帧率）高性能CMOS像素传感器技术的基础上，并集成脉冲激光和现场气体流动技术，以开发时间分辨、原位、电子成像和衍射能力。该仪器将用于研究负载纳米颗粒的化学反应和快速相变、电化学能量转换中的氧还原、铁电畴开关、半导体纳米线的成核和生长以及锂离子电池的降解机制。通过使用液态细胞和直接电子检测CMOS传感低电子剂量，在体内，天然肽和细胞的电子成像也将成为可能。电子显微镜通过提供高空间分辨率的化学和结构信息，在技术、能源和医学新材料的开发中发挥着关键作用。具有快速和超快时间分辨率的原位电子显微镜的发展将为研究人员开辟广阔的新领域。该仪器将被安置并成为伊利诺伊大学材料研究实验室（MRL）中心设施的材料微分析中心（CMM）的特色工具之一。CMM是一个开放存取的设施，拥有专门的工作人员，为伊利诺伊州30个部门100多个研究小组的850多名用户以及来自全国其他机构的研究人员提供服务。MRL的设施支持伊利诺斯州的学术使命，在几所大学的课程中使用仪器，每年举办一次教学表征研讨会，促进来自世界各地的大量研究生和专业科学家的“动手”培训。共享仪器也是物理、材料科学、化学和工程专业本科生研究经验的重要资源，许多本科生在使用先进仪器方面得到了第一次培训。拟议的文书将纳入这些培训活动。此外，这种新仪器将有助于材料研究的“生态系统”，作为如何整合第一性原理材料设计，纳米制造，纳米表征和计算的模型。

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.