ER-C 2.0: An update on plans for new electron microscopes at the Ernst Ruska-Centre in Forschungszentrum Jülich

Abstract text (incl. figure legends and references)

The Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C) in Forschungszentrum Jülich has operated a user facility in advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) jointly with RWTH Aachen University since 2004. Following a competitive selection process, the ER-C succeeded in being placed on the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructure of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2019 based on its "ER-C 2.0" application for a "National research infrastructure for high-resolution electron microscopy".

The ER-C 2.0 project is based on five next-generation electron microscopes, which are not currently available commercially and will be delivered in 2024 and 2025. The microscopes will be operated jointly by Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH Aachen University and Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. Their development and operation will also be supported by associated partners in Humboldt University Berlin, the University of Göttingen, Maastricht University and the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf.

The basic specifications of the five instruments, which are presently being designed by different column manufacturers in consultation with companies specializing in aberration corrector, detector and sample transfer technologies, as well as in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) equipment and correlative techniques, are as follows:

TOMO: An aberration corrected UHV TEM combined in a single instrument with a co-located laser-equipped atom probe tomography capability and a cartridge-based liquid-helium-cooled specimen holder.

OPERANDO: An aberration corrected fully bakeable UHV TEM equipped with in situ deposition of a wide range of materials using the technique of thermal laser epitaxy, with connectivity to a cryo UHV focused ion beam scanning electron microscope equipped with a secondary ion mass spectrometer and to a scanning probe microscope.

FEMTO: Two time-resolved laser-driven aberration corrected field emission TEMs for ultrafast and dynamic studies of reversible and irreversible processes in materials over the widest range of temporal resolutions, featuring unique electron gun designs, magnetic-field-free imaging with atomic spatial resolution, an ultra-wide pole-piece gap and cryo workflows.

SPECTRO: An ultra-high-energy-resolution aberration corrected scanning TEM equipped with light injection and collection, helium cooling of the specimen, magnetic-field-free imaging with atomic spatial resolution, gas injection and connectivity to a high pressure scanning electron microscope equipped with co-located cathodolouminescence and Raman spectroscopy.

BIO: A chromatic and spherical aberration corrected next generation cryo TEM equipped with liquid helium cooling of the specimen and additional electron optical elements for novel phase plate designs.

Access to the microscopes will be provided based on scientific proposals, which will be assessed by an external review panel. Successful applicants will be supervised by experienced scientists, who will offer hands-on support with experiments, analysis and data science. In this talk, I will present an update about the current status of the project.