Topic CS5-10a: Computationally Mediated Tomography system for in situ TEM

C55-10a-270371Electron Tomography (ET) is used to visualize nanostructures in three dimensions, but long acquisition times make it unsuitable for the study of fast in situ reactions and dose-sensitive materials. The limiting factor for fast acquisition of ET data is stage instability causing drift in all directions while tilting. Because ET requires many images taken within the exact same field of view, performance is further compromised by the quickly accumulating sample dose and a lack of tools to quantify dose for samples moving through 3D space. Achieving an order-of-magnitude performance improvement over existing solutions requires new technologies that innovate across multiple fronts including: 1) machine vison software that controls the goniometer and beam position to compensate for drift, 2) a method to accurately define and control accumulated dose for the sample area despite physical movement and 3) in situ holder designs that allows for higher degrees of tilt while still leveraging the advantages of MEMS technologies. The proposed Computationally Mediated Tomography (CMT) system will enable fast continuous tomography of samples on MEMS heating/biasing chips supporting a variety of in situ experiments. The Phase I effort will deliver a proof-of-concept machine vision solution that completely stabilizes the 3D movement of the sample while continuously tilting the goniometer using an off-the-shelf tomography holder. The total accumulated dose will also be tracked and reported back for the full tilt series. The Phase II effort will focus on the design of a unique TEM heating/electrical biasing holder and new high-tilt MEMS devices to provide high tilt angles while performing in situ experiments. A solution for ultra-fast in situ ET would accelerate development and commercialization of nanomaterials, leveraging the existing base of thousands of advanced electron microscopes and complementary correlative characterization techniques to address an unmet need in the market. Bringing new materials to the market will save time and money for a wide range of industries, including chemical manufacturing, new battery materials, and corrosion.