The Materials MicroÅnalysis (MMÅ) group’s mission is to "understand materials’ structure, chemistry, and function through the development and application of advanced analytical microscopy, atom probe tomography, and cryo-electron microscopy techniques."
Materials MicroÅnalysis Group
The MMÅ group at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) is dedicated to pioneering advanced, multi-scale materials characterization techniques that are aimed at uncovering vital structure-property-function correlations for materials research.
Our group specializes in the development and application of aberration-corrected STEM imaging, spectroscopy (electron energy loss spectroscopy and energy dispersive), and electron diffraction methods for a wide range of materials (metals/alloys, ceramics, composites, biological and nanomaterials) used in energy storage, catalysis, quantum, structural, nuclear, biopreparedness, and theranostic applications. Our microscopes are uniquely equipped for in situ/operando microscopy experimentation with specialized holders and systems that allows us to image and analyze materials response under a range of sample of environments (liquid, gas, vacuum) and external stimuli such as temperature, pressure, laser irradiation, and electrical bias. We have a full suite of cryogenic preparation equipment and a dedicated, semi-automated cryo-electron microscopes that are used to study biological specimens, macromolecular structures, and beam-sensitive materials at near-atomic resolution.
Our atom probe tomography facility (local electrode atom probe and dual beam SEM/FIB for specimen preparation) allows us to study the 3-D chemical composition with sub-nm resolution. Our team benefits from collaboration between DNA and NTI research groups to develop AI/ML-driven workflows to efficiently explore, analyze, and interpret data.
