Photo credit: Chris Kitchen / Cornell University Photography
There are normal electron microscopes, and then the electron microscope pixel array detector (EMPAD) developed by Cornell physicists, which not only yields an image, but a host of information about the electrons that create the image. Now, a research team led by David Muller has set a new record using an electron microscope pixel array detector (EMPAD) integrates more sophisticated 3D reconstruction algorithms.
The imaging is so sharp that the only blurred sections are from the actual movements of an atom. To top this record, the researchers would need a material that consists of heavier atoms that have less movement or find a way to do so by cooling down the sample. Whatever they choose, more powerful computers used in conjunction with machine learning as well as faster detectors will be needed to make the technology more efficient.
- Five widefield magnification settings: 40X, 100X, 250X, 400X, 1000X and 2500X
- Professional 30 degree inclined 360 degree swiveling Siedentopf binocular head
- Sturdy framework with 3-D double layer mechanical stage, coaxial coarse and fine focusing, Abbe condenser, iris diaphragm and color filter
We can extract local strains, tilts, rotations, polarity and even electric and magnetic fields. It’s reached a regime which is effectively going to be an ultimate limit for resolution. We basically can now figure out where the atoms are in a very easy way. This opens up a whole lot of new measurement possibilities of things we’ve wanted to do for a very long time. It also solves a long-standing problem – undoing the multiple scattering of the beam in the sample, which Hans Bethe laid out in 1928 – that has blocked us from doing this in the past.” said David Muller, professor of applied and engineering physics, who developed the new device with Sol Gruner, professor of physics, and members of their research groups.