Advances in electron microscopy have given a much deeper insight into the nanoscale world. Experiments using electron microscopy only has a small amount of information generated as the beam hits the samples. A team at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has invented a electron detector that can capture information at a much faster rate than before. The new device was installed on Feb. 12 at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, and it captures those images on a sub-atomic level on larger areas. The facility can be accessed by researchers around the world.
A computer chip on the newly created electron detector called the 4D Camera. (Image Credit: Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab)
The quicker image capturing process can show significant changes that are occurring in samples and provide movies in those changes, rather than snapshots. It would also help scientists to look deeper into battery and microchip components at the atomic scale level before damage occurs. The device is connected to the Corisupercomputer at the Lab's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and will allow scientists to record smaller scale images up to 60 times faster than normal detectors. The newer movies generated from the detector could reveal movements in material. The new detector, named the '4D Camera' (Dynamic Diffraction Direct Detector) is the newest innovation involving atomic-scale imaging, high-speed data transfer, and computing at Berkeley Lab. It has taken decades of research and analysis to complete its design.
With the new detector, scientists are able to get a whole scattering pattern instead of just one point and can reanalyze data, helping them to find any issues that weren't noticed at first. This creates an entire image of a sample by scanning across it with an electronic beam and capturing information based on electrons that scatter off the sample. It's also possible to study both the light and heavyweight elements in materials - each one side by side. This allows scientists to measure the positions of light elements that are more sensitive to the electron beam - like lithium battery, allowing measurements of heavy elements in the same material.
Installed on the Transmission Electron Aberration-corrected Microscope 0.5 (TEAM 0.5) at the Molecular Foundry, the detector can generate 4TB of data per minute. Which is equivalent to watching 60,000 HD movies at the same time. Data is transferred over 100 fiber-optic connection into a high-speed Ethernet connection - which is 1,000 times faster than a home network.
The Transmission Electron Aberration-corrected Microscope 0.5 is located at the Molecular Foundry and can generate 4TB of data. (Image Credit: Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab)
The supercomputer is connected to the Foundry via a network. It will only take the supercomputer 20 seconds to provide feedback to the scientists, determining whether or not the experiment was successful. Electrons that come through a sample can also be captured as it gets scattered. Scientists will also be able to conduct virtual experiments off the sample rather than going back and forth in the lab. The 4D Camera will play a significant role for facilities like the Advanced Light Source and the LCLS-II project at SLAC National Accelerator Facility.
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