LAUSR

In various research areas ranging from materials science to life sciences it becomes more and more important to be able to analyze the structure as well as the chemical composition at the nano-scale. For example, the size of electronic components becomes smaller and smaller increasing the need of having techniques to precisely follow dopant distributions with high spatial resolution. In the field of renewable energy devices, e.g. solar cells and batteries, the performance typically depends on the chosen material composition and distribution. Linking the underlying structure and composition at the nano-scale to the device’s performance is therefore of utmost importance [1,2]. Similar needs for having high spatial resolution and high-sensitivity chemical information can be found in life sciences [3]. In nano-toxicology for instance, it is important to be able to reveal sub-cellular structures and simultaneously determine their chemical, elemental or isotopic composition in order to better understand relevant processes [4]. In most of the afore mentioned studies a number of different instruments is nowadays used to perform these investigations using correlative approaches. Being able to do such correlative studies in one single instrument is definitely beneficial for reducing the analysis time, speeding up the throughput as well as for facilitating the precise localization of the region of interests on the investigated samples.