Advanced Capabilities

Titan Probe-Corrected TEM (4D-STEM, EELS, SPED)

The Titan TEM is the flagship of AFMM, enabling sub-angstrom spatial resolution and meV-scale spectroscopic sensitivity. It is equipped with:

  • Aberration-corrected STEM for atomic-resolution imaging
  • 4D-STEM for quantitative mapping of:
    • Electric and magnetic fields
    • Strain, rotation, and lattice distortions
    • Crystal orientation and symmetry breaking
  • Scanning Precession Electron Diffraction (SPED) for robust phase and orientation mapping in strained, defective, and polycrystalline materials
  • Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS), including:
    • Low-loss EELS for plasmons, excitons, phonons, and dielectric response
    • Core-loss EELS for element-specific chemistry, oxidation states, orbital occupancy, and correlation physics

This platform enables AFMM users to simultaneously map atomic structure, chemistry, bonding, and electronic excitations within the same nanoscale region.

Atom Probe Tomography (APT)

APT provides three-dimensional, atom-by-atom compositional mapping with near-ppm sensitivity. When used in conjunction with TEM:

  • Enables true multiscale correlative microscopy, linking
    • 3D chemical distributions (APT)
    • with atomic-scale structure and electronic states (TEM/EELS)
  • Particularly powerful for studying:
    • Dopant segregation in semiconductors
    • Interface chemistry in oxide heterostructures
    • Defects, clustering, and diffusion in functional materials

Focused Ion Beam Platforms (Helios & Scios)

AFMM hosts both Helios and Scios FIB-SEM systems, providing a complete, high-precision sample-preparation and nanofabrication ecosystem:

  • Site-specific TEM and APT lamella preparation
  • 3D tomography and serial sectioning
  • Nanopatterning and device cross-sectioning
  • Damage-minimized and geometry-controlled specimen preparation

These platforms are essential for preparing beam-sensitive, nanoscale, and device-integrated samples for advanced electron and atom-probe analysis.

Apreo SEM & XRD-IA

The Apreo SEM and XRD-IA (X-ray diffraction with imaging and analysis) enable mesoscale to microscale structural and morphological characterization, including:

  • High-resolution SEM imaging
  • EBSD and EDS for crystallography and elemental analysis
  • Phase, texture, and strain analysis using XRD-IA

These tools provide the structural and statistical context that connects nanoscale TEM/APT measurements to bulk and device-level behavior.

Selected scientific problems enabled at AFMM

AFMM’s integrated infrastructure enables a set of niche, high-impact scientific capabilities that are not accessible with any single technique alone:

1. Multiscale Correlative and in-situ Microscopy

By combining APT, TEM, EELS, 4D-STEM, and FIB, AFMM enables:

  • Direct correlation between 3D chemistry, atomic structure, and electronic properties
  • Quantitative linking of defects, dopants, interfaces, and functional responses across length scales
  • Understanding the material dynamics under application of various stimuli such as field and temperature.

This is critical for operando investigations of metals, semiconductors, oxides, energy materials, and nanoscale devices.

2. Ultimate-Resolution Imaging of Materials, Interfaces, and Devices

The aberration-corrected Titan provides:

  • Atomic-resolution imaging of interfaces, grain boundaries, dislocations, and defects
  • Direct visualization of reconstructions, distortions, and emergent structural phases in various materials including low-dimensional and correlated materials

3. Mapping Excitations and Ultrafine Electronic Structure

Using low-loss EELS and monochromated spectroscopy, AFMM can map:

  • Plasmons and excitons in 2D and nanostructured materials
  • Phonons and vibrational excitations
  • Local dielectric and optical response

This enables direct studies of light–matter interaction, collective modes, and nanoscale electrodynamics.

Why AFMM is Unique

AFMM does not simply host advanced microscopes—it provides a coherent, correlative ecosystem where structure, chemistry, fields, and excitations can be measured on the same nanoscale volume of a material or device, including state-of-the-art sample prep tools and training. This makes AFMM uniquely positioned to address frontier problems in:

  • Structural materials
  • Quantum and correlated materials
  • Nanoelectronics and 2D systems
  • Energy and catalytic materials
  • Semiconductor and oxide heterostructures
  • Next-generation functional devices

In short, AFMM enables true physics- and chemistry-driven microscopy at the atomic scale, transforming raw images into quantitative, predictive insight.

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