Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have achieved a milestone in materials science and electron microscopy by imaging a material at nanometer and nanosecond scales, an unprecedented combination of spatial and temporal resolution.

They used the Lab’s new Dynamic Transmission Electron Microscope (DTEM) to image a multilayer foil at 15-nanosecond resolution.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is capable of sub-angstrom spatial resolution (under .1 nanometer), but is limited to about 1 millisecond in acquisition time. The DTEM overcomes this limit by adding a 15-ns laser for stimulation of a high-power, ultra-fast photoemission electron source.

Observing short-lived behavior is key to understanding many of the basic phenomena at the heart of chemistry, biology and materials science.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory news release

Imaging of Transient Structures Using Nanosecond in Situ TEM, Science 12 September 2008 (subscription required)