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A record-breaking microscope

An electron microscope has been developed that produces images at higher resolution than conventional approaches can achieve, and is suitable for studying fragile materials that can be damaged by electron beams.
  1. John Rodenburg

    1. John Rodenburg is in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.

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In a paper Nature, Jiang et al.1 report the highest-magnification image ever obtained using a transmission electron microscope. The image reveals the atoms in a two-dimensional self-supporting sheet of a semiconductor, and has a resolution of 0.39 ångströms; for comparison, most atoms are about 2–4 Å in diameter. The technique might eventually allow 2D materials to be examined with unprecedented precision, providing insight into this burgeoning class of useful compounds. It might also lead to the development of a method that can image individual atoms in 3D objects.

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Nature 559, 334-335 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05711-y

References

  1. Jiang, Y. et al. Nature 559, 343–349 (2018).

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  4. Pfeiffer, F. Nature Photon. 12, 9–17 (2018).

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Competing Interests

The article discusses work by a group at Cornell University that uses a computational method of imaging called 'ptychography'. There are many competing ptychographical inverse computation strategies, many of which have been patented by various groups around the world. Some of these methods (but not all of the ones used by the Cornell group) are subject to granted patents originally filed by the author:

PCT/GB2005/001464: 'High Resolution Imaging' by Rodenburg and Faulkner, European grant EP1740975B1, US Grant US7792246B2, and in various other territories: Original basis of the 'ePIE' algorithm used by the Cornell team for some of their reconstructions.

PCT/GB2008/000620: 'Three dimensional Imaging' by Rodenburg, European grant EP2152164B1, US grant US9116120B2, and in various other territories. Method not mentioned by the Cornell team or the author, but could be construed to encumber certain methods of ptychographical 3D imaging.

PCT/GB2011/051786: 'Three dimensional Imaging' by Rodenburg, Maiden and Humphry, European grant EP20110763975, US grant US9401042B2, and in other territories. Extension to removal of multiple scattering postulated by the Cornell team, but not mentioned by the author.

The above patents are owned by a company called Phase Focus Ltd, which was originally spun out of the University of Sheffield (the author's employer), with the help of the author.

The author retains a 2.86% shareholding in Phase Focus, but he is no longer involved with it in any other capacity.

Phase Focus now has an extensive patent portfolio, filed by its own employees, in addition to those above. They publish a list of awarded patents at:

http://www.phasefocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Phasefocus-Granted-Patent-List.pdf

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