Methodology & Technique Development

While the beginnings of Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy can now be traced back nearly 100 years to its first realization by Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll in 1931, development and advancement of these techniques never stopped, shifting boarders in accuracy and opening up new possibilities to this day. For example, the enhancements in in-situ instrumentation now not only allows for the investigation of samples under temperatures ranging from 4 K to 1000°C, checking their electrical bias and observing them within gaseous and liquid environments, but also to dynamically change these environments during the investigation. The introduction of robust direct electron detection cameras with large signal yields on the other hand opened up the possibility for rapid acquisition of large amounts of data, reducing beam damage and sample drift while offering more information of the sample at the same time.

Not only keeping up with these improvements, but also driving their development forward is a main goal of StEM. The resulting access to new and improved ways to utilize electron microscopy for the investigation of samples is then applied within StEM for the cooperation with other scientific groups. This not only boost our expertise in these techniques due to the valuable feedback we gain, but first and foremost strengthen their understanding in the materials their are researching.