IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

The updated Titan Image will be available in spring 2025 for ELECMI’s open competitive access processes and on-demand applications. Further information will follow shortly.

The Image Corrected Titan initially had a spherical aberration corrector (CEOS Company) at the objective lens, the lens that forms the image. It was recently upgraded to incorporate a spherical aberration corrector (CEOS Company) at the condenser lens, the lens that forms the probe. Now, it also has a monochoromator. Furthermore, this microscope is also equipped with a biprism for Electron Holography analysis and a Lorentz Lens to perform High Resolution Lorentz Microscopy.

Working at low-voltage (30, 60 and 80 kV), and because of the aberration correctors, high resolution images can be obtained even on beam-sensitive materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, zeolites and mesoporous materials, etc.

The working voltages for this instrument are: 30, 60, 80, 120, and 300 kV.

The expertise of our scientific and technical staff is also offered to researchers from public and private research centers and to professionals from industrial sectors that require the use of this instrument.

This Transmission Electron Microscope works at voltages between 30 and 300 kV. It is located in a “box” (cube) to avoid mechanical and thermal perturbations. It has a high-brightness field-emission gun (XFEG; Schottky emitter). The main working modes in this microscope are:

  • HREM: since this microscope is devoted for Hi devoted to High Resolution (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR(S)TEM) studies, it is equipped with a Cs Image Corrector (CETCOR) and a Cs DCOR Probe Corrector, both from CEOS Company allowing spatial resolutions below 0.08 nm at 300kV in both modes (TEM and STEM).
  • Post Column CMOS camera CMOS Ceta 16M with Speed Enhancement – 4k x 4k, 14 x 14 μm2 pixels.
  • Monochromator and post-column energy filter from Gatan – Continuum K3 HR/1069HR including FXUP scintillator and the single-electron counting direct detection K3 camera. The combination of the monochromator and this spectrometer allows the possibility of performing electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) measurements with energy resolutions better than 60 meV at 60 kV. Ultrafast DualEELS Spectrum Imaging can also be performed in this instrument.
  • Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) – Super-X system from ThermoFisher Scientist. This EDS detector system is equipped with 4 Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) providing superior sensitivity and ultimate performance in EDS.
  • 4DSTEM measurements can be performed either using the Ceta camera or the K3 camera.
  • STEM images from four segments of the DF4 detector for performing iDPC (integrated Differential Phase Contrast) – this technique provides not only easily interpretable high-resolution images for thin samples but also enhanced sensitivity to light elements and a greater elemental imaging range compared with other STEM techniques.
  • Electron tomography – including the possibility of analytical (EDS or EELS) tomography.
  • Lorentz and holography: as for the dedicated Titan STEM, beside these spectroscopy capabilities, the Titan3 corrected microscope is fitted with a Lorentz lens and an electrostatic biprism allowing Lorentz and medium resolution electron holography experiments to be carried on.

Image (0.08 nm resolution)

  • Size and morphology information (TEM).
  • Crystalline Structure (Electron Diffraction and High Resolution TEM).
  • Composition: Scanning-Transmission imaging with a High Angle Annular Dark Field detector (STEM-HAADF). The contrast in the image depends on the atomic number (Z-contrast). Energy Filtered TEM (EFTEM) yields information about a specific element.

Chemical Analysis

  • Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopies (EELS).
  • Combined with the STEM mode: chemical composition with spatial resolution: composition maps and profiles.

Vector Field Analysis

  • Electric and magnetic field studies by Electron Holography.
  • Magnetic domain studies by Lorentz Microscopy.
  • Stress and strain studies by HRTEM imaging.

In situ physical properties measurements

  • Changes of crystalline phase (Electron diffraction)
  • Defect structure by bright field/dark field imaging (BF/DF) and Weak Beam imaging (WBDF).

Examples of work that can be done on this microscope:

In Situ Formation of Carbon Nanotubes Encapsulated within Boron Nitride Nanotubes via Electron Irradiation Ref.: ACS Nano 8, 8419-8425 (2014) doi:10.1021/nn502912w

Aberration corrected HRTEM image of a magnetite nanoparticle epitaxially coated by a 1-nm-thick MgO layer. The insets show the FFT calculated from the areas marked with white squares. Ref.: Chem. Mater., 2012, 24 (3), pp 451–456. doi:10.1021/cm202306z

Laboratorio de Microscopías Avanzadas

We are a unique initiative at national and international levels. We provide the scientific and industrial community with the most advanced infrastructures in Nanofabrication, Local Probe and Electron Microscopies for the observation, characterization, nanopatterning and handling of materials at atomic and molecular scale.

Contact information

Campus Río Ebro, Edificio Edificio I+D+i

C/ Mariano Esquillor, s/n
50018 Zaragoza (España)

Tel.:(+34) 976 762 980
lma@unizar.es