LAUSR

Many processes in materials science are dependent on the local environmental conditions (temperature, pressure, gas, liquid etc). Although recent years have seen a paradigm change in (scanning) transmission electron microscopy ((S)TEM) with unprecedented improvements in spatial and spectroscopic resolution being achieved, a full utilization of these new capabilities to study processes requires precise control of the environment around the sample. Further, as nanomaterials are three-dimensional (3-D) in nature, it is not sufficient to take single 2-D projection images of 3-D objects. In order to understand the true nature of the nanomaterial, a 3D tomogram is necessary on the nanoto atomic scale. Traditionally, this involves taking a series of images of the sample at different tilt angles, normally ranging between -70° to +70° every 1 to 2 degrees, and using these two dimensional images to reconstruct a three dimensional volume of the sample. More recently, the development of novel algorithms have greatly aided in the reduction of reconstruction artifacts, and even provided atomic resolution 3-D tomograms from only 3-5 projection images.