Research Projects - Big Data & technique development

In collaboration with Dr. Edgar Rauch, SIMAP laboratory, Grenoble, and Dr. Wolfgang Ludwig, MATEIS, INSA Lyon, we are developing a correlative scanning precession electron diffraction and atom probe tomography method to access the three-dimensional (3D) crystallographic character and compositional information of nanomaterials with unprecedented spatial and chemical resolution. more

The goal of this project is to optimize the orientation mapping technique using four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D STEM) in conjunction with precession electron diffraction (PED). The development of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based cameras has revolutionized the capabilities in data acquisition due to their high sensitivity and fast read out speeds. While scanning an almost parallel, nanometer sized electron probe across the sample, it is now possible to acquire high quality diffraction patterns at each beam position. This produces a complex 4D dataset, where local crystal symmetries, lattice strain and crystal orientation are encoded in the 2D diffraction patterns obtained for each point of the 2D raster grid. The high image quality of the diffraction patterns significantly improves the reliability to determine lattice symmetries and orientations and with this greatly enhances orientation mapping. more

  Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has become an increasingly versatile and sophisticated instrument for studying materials at the atomic scale, due to advancements in in situ capabilities, novel imaging and spectroscopy modalities and ultrafast detectors. The large multidimensional datasets that are produced are enormously rich in quantitative information about the sample, but they call for new approaches in terms of data and metadata management. At present, the multitude of proprietary data formats developed by instrument manufacturers hinder easy access to the raw data. Each format also has their own metadata representation. In light of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles, it is becoming increasingly important to standardize (meta)data representation. The goal of this project is to develop universal, instrument and experiment independent TEM data and metadata formats.  more