Ultrafast Electron Microscope Available at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials

Ilke Arslan, Director of Argonne National Laboratory’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), discusses the facility’s new Ultrafast Electron Microscope (UEM). A unique user capability among the national laboratories, the UEM combines ultrafast lasers with a modified transmission electron microscope. It allows scientists to look at nanoscale structural and chemical changes in materials at ultrafast time scales—with resolution of hundreds of femtoseconds. Scientists can observe these dynamics either through direct imaging, diffraction or spectroscopy using high-sensitivity cameras. The UEM is used for a variety of applications, including sustainable energy harvesting and quantum information science. CNM is a DOE Office of Science User Facility