PRESS RELEASE

Atomic resolution electron microscopy in a magnetic field free environment:Professor Naoya Shibata, Assistant Professor Takehito Seki, Institute of Engineering Innovation, and other researchers.


Authors

N. Shibata, Y. Kohno, A. Nakamura, S. Morishita, T. Seki, A. Kumamoto, H. Sawada, T. Matsumoto, S. D. Findlay & Y. IkuharaAbstract
Atomic-resolution electron microscopes utilize high-power magnetic lenses to produce magnified images of the atomic details of matter. Doing so involves placing samples inside the magnetic objective lens, where magnetic fields of up to a few tesla are always exerted. This can largely alter, or even destroy, the magnetic and physical structures of interest. Here, we describe a newly developed magnetic objective lens system that realizes a magnetic field free environment at the sample position. Combined with a higher-order aberration corrector, we achieve direct, atom-resolved imaging with sub-Å spatial resolution with a residual magnetic field of less than 0.2 mT at the sample position. This capability enables direct atom-resolved imaging of magnetic materials such as silicon steels. Removing the need to subject samples to high magnetic field environments enables a new stage in atomic resolution electron microscopy that realizes direct, atomic-level observation of samples without unwanted high magnetic field effects.

 

 

Nature Communcations:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10281-2