Imaging in space, energy and beyond.
The overall aim of the HYPerspectral Electron Nanoscopy (HYPEN) group is to study nanoscale physical and chemical processes not just in space, but also across the energy spectrum of the electrons (or the x-rays/light emitted from samples in electron microscopes). Today’s electron microscopes are capable of forming electron probes with sizes below 1 Å and can routinely record atomic resolution images. Simultaneously, we can acquire spatially resolved spectroscopic data to obtain a rainbow of information on the chemical composition, local chemistry, band structure and optical properties of materials. Moreover, we are able to record (in space, energy and time) how materials evolve in processes such as chemical reactions or under heating/cooling or electrical biasing. This leads to the generation of multi-dimensional data sets, which provide a rich source of information about nanostructures with extremely high spatial resolution. We exploit this in the HYPEN group to address issues related to a number of applications ranging from data communications to sensing and photocatalysis. We are in particular interested in nanoscale characterisation of optical excitations using electron beam spectroscopic methods.