Successful Demonstration of Fastest Electron Microscopy Detector Ever Made

Professors Minor and Scott participated in the team that completed the successful installation and testing of the new 4D Camera at the National Center for Electron Microscopy in the Molecular Foundry at LBNL. This camera can produce continuous electron images every 11 microseconds.  That’s about 60X faster than what was possible with previous high speed electron detectors. At 87,000 frames/second, the camera is optimized for high dynamic range through both speed and sensitivity enable the acquisition of pixelated images during high resolution STEM imaging without slowing down the electron probe. The new camera will lead to real-time phase contrast ptychographic imaging, drift mitigation and improvements in signal/noise for beam-sensitive samples (i.e. biomolecules), and breakthroughs in nanoscale strain mapping and quantification of materials using scanning electron diffraction imaging methods at high resolution. Read more here.