Microscopy
The 17 ESTEEM2 partners are involved in different but complementary fields of electron microscopy , which creates significant , added scientific value . However , this requires that the research infrastructures operate , evolve and interact with each other and with users to form an efficient collaborating network . To achieve this a series of five networking activities have been established that support integration between the users and partners . These include :
• Workshops and schools that disseminate cuttingedge TEM techniques have been organised and enable new users to become familiar with the range of innovative EM capabilities .
• Optimisation of methods for preparing high quality artefact free TEM lamellae extracted from a wide range of modern materials led to the creation of a library of standards describing optimum specimen preparations . Fifteen protocols for sample preparation are now available online on the ESTEEM2 website ( see link below ).
• A number of ESTEEM2 partners are working to create new models and computational tools for the analysis of data obtained from TEM methods including imaging , spectroscopy and tomographic reconstruction . Eleven piece of software developed in this work-package are currently freely available on the ESTEEM2 website .
• In addition , a dedicated Advanced Service Provisions work package has been established to drive developments in ESTEEM2 toward the users need for advanced TEM capabilities and tools , and to facilitate the transfer of deliverables developed in other activities to the users .
• The ESTEEM2 project also aims to optimise state-of-theart TEM instruments available in Europe and to develop new advanced TEM methods and theory for the benefit of users and more generally of European scientists .
Five ESTEEM2 joint research activities are focused on the development of the quantitative TEM methods required to solve technologically important problems in materials and nano-science , and to support potentially disruptive developments . These include :
• ‘ Diffraction ’ aims at advancing electron diffraction-based methods for solving structures at the nanometre scale using electrons .
• “ Imaging ’ focuses on quantitative imaging using TEM at the picometer scale together with the development of the innovative methods to process the data .
Strain distribution in an array of strained-silicon devices measured from electron microscope data
NanoMEGAS : Creating advanced tools for electron diffraction
NanoMEGAS is a Brussels – based SME created in 2004 with the mission to develop electron diffraction solutions for material science applications in Transmission Electron Microscopy ( TEM ) applications .
NanoMEGAS was the first company to develop and commercialise precession electron diffraction ( PED ) equipment – ‘ spinning star ’ – to solve crystal nanostructures .
NanoMEGAS PED devices have been made compatible for most types of commercial TEM and are now installed in more than 120 laboratories all over the world .
Due to this large number of installations worldwide , the scientific production on electron crystallography has been exponentially increased since 2004 , with more than 200 published papers .
In 2008 in collaboration with CNRS-INP Grenoble- France the automated phase-orientation mapping device ‘ ASTAR ’ was launched which allows nm resolution phase / orientation maps for any material in the TEM .
NanoMEGAS has an extended network of research collaborations in electron crystallography with several leading Universities-Research Centres , including the Universities of Leiden ( Netherlands ), Mainz ( Germany ) and Barcelona ( Spain ).
There are more than 60 papers on electron crystallography where NanoMEGAS scientists have been involved . NanoMEGAS has great technical expertise to adapt electron crystallography solutions on any TEM platform enabling the spread of use of PED techniques among the ESTEEM2 partners .
The NanoMEGAS team are part of the ESTEEM2 consortium
In the framework of ESTEEM2 , NanoMEGAS has contributed the development and optimisation of new ultrafast 3D precession diffraction tomography technique in TEM . In collaboration with IIT in Pisa and the Department of Materials Science in Cambridge , the company has developed novel techniques for the characterisation of beam-sensitive samples . The random tomography approach , using a fast scanning in PED mode , has enabled to collect between10-20 randomly oriented diffraction patterns from several pharmaceutical crystals under very low dose conditions and made possible to reconstruct ‘ ab-initio ’ true unit cells of known API compounds .
Furthermore , in collaboration with Akademia Gorniczo- Hutnicza Krakow , NanoMEGAS has performed state of the art orientation and phase mapping for several metallic materials , which have subsequently proved to be of high industrial interest .
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