Henny Zandbergen at TU Delft has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of €2.5 million for research into improved microscopic technologies that will make it possible to visualise extremely small structures such as semiconductor nanowires, all the way down to the atomic level.
Currently, the most important technology in this area is High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). The technique for which Zandbergen has been awarded the ERC Advanced Grant proposal adds a unique extra element to HRTEM, combining electron microscopy at an atomic level with the ability to make physical measurements, in particular, of electrical characteristics. These measurements can be made at the same time viewing structures at an atomic scale.
“As a result, we can use HRTEM as a kind of nanolaboratory,” Zandbergen says. “We want to use the ERC Advanced Grant to develop equipment and methods for carrying out nanoelectrical measurements, such as electrical resistance, in HRTEM. These NanoElectrical Measurements in a Transmission Electron Microscope (NEMinTEM) will be applied to various nanostructures, such as semiconductor nanowires, graphene and metal nanoelectrodes.”
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