Advanced TEM Inaugurated at the Ernst Ruska-Centre in Germany

The Ernst Ruska-Centre (ER-C) in Jülich, Germany has reached a record resolution of 50 picometers (one billionth of a millimeter), using an advanced TEM microscope which allows scientists to resolve atomic structures to unprecedented levels.

Funded by the Ernst Ruska-Centre’s “PICO” project, the recently installed FEI Titan3™ G2 60-300 scanning transmission electron microscope (S/TEM) is one of only two of its kind in the world and the first one in Europe with chromatic aberration correction (CC).

The Advanced Picometre Resolution Project (PICO), a joint collaboration between FEI, CEOS (Corrected Electron Optical Systems) and the Ernst Ruska-Centre is focused on building a microscope that pushes the envelope of the physical limits of electron optics.

“The ER-C’s achievement of 50 picometer resolution is the pinnacle of performance in the world of microscopy,” stated Trisha Rice, vice president and general manager of FEI’s Materials Science Business Unit. “It will allow for new insights in the fields of nanotechnology, solid state physics and materials science and the potential development of faster, more energy-efficient, and more reliable devices, materials and nanostructures.”

A chromatic aberration corrector has been added to improve resolution and precision, giving the system the capability to measure interatomic distances and atom displacements with a precision of five picometers to only one picometer. The PICO system also incorporates aberration-corrected electron optics developed in the 1990s by scientists at the EMBL Heidelberg, CEOS, the Technical University of Darmstadt and Forschungszentrum Jülich.

The ER-C received approximately $20 million (USD) in funding for the project (covering the cost of the PICO system, additional analytical equipment, and new building expenses) from the Federal State, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the German Research Foundation, and the Helmholtz Association.