High Efficiency Electron Detector for Electron Microscopy

This project seeks to demonstrate an improved, ultra-fast and highly-efficient electron detector for electron microscopy. In Phase I, ultrafast ,pico-second, ZnO based scintillators were developed and Schottky diodes with excellent performance were demonstrated. Phase II will refine the development of the ZnO scintillator to maximize light output, while maintaining sub-nanosecond speed; and build ZnO Schottky diode arrays in two geometries, enabling detection in backscatter and transmission modes. The ZnO scintillators and diodes will be fabricated and these devices will be provided to Argonne National Laboratory for testing in state of the art electron and ion microscopes. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The extremely high speed of the proposed devices should enable a 10 to 50 times improvement in scanning times compared to current detector materials. The proposed technology should have applications in microscopy, geophysical studies, medical imaging, homeland security, and high energy physics.