Showing papers by "Andrew Bleloch published in 2002"

The superSTEM: An Aberration Corrected Analytical Microscopy Facility

Abstract: Following the initial demonstration of aberration correction in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) by Krivanek and the ‘synchrotron in a microscope’ paper by Brown, the United Kingdom electron microscopy community organized and supported a bid to set up a national facility (SuperSTEM) to exploit the technology of aberration correction for the benefit of the national and international community. Ultimately this facility was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The SuperSTEM laboratory building has been specified and designed so as to minimize instabilities caused by electrical interference, vibration (and sound), and thermal variations. Currently this building houses one instrument (SuperSTEM1): an old 100 kV VG STEM HB501 which has had an aberration corrector built by Nion Inc retrofitted. this machine currently achieves a probe size of 0.091 nm and an EELS energy resolution of of 0.4 eV. In 2006, a completely new NION instrument (SuperSTEM2) will be commissioned which aims to achieve a probe size of 0.08 nm, this will also possess a much more flexible stage with cooling facilities as well as an EDX detector. We will highlight the performance of the first instrument using examples from a wide range of materials including minerals, nanoparticles and biogenic materials.