Innovation in Materials Characterization (IMC) Award

2012 MRS Spring Meeting logo

Innovation in Materials Characterization (IMC) Award

Stephen J. Pennycook - 2012 MRS IMC Award Winner

Stephen J. Pennycook, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Tuesday, April 10
5:15 pm – 6:00 pm
Marriott Marquis, Golden Gate Level, B 

Stephen J. Pennycook (view biography)
Materials Science and Technology Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory 

Talk Presentation: Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy—Seeing the Atoms More Clearly(View Abstract) 

The IMC award honors an outstanding advance in materials characterization that notably increases knowledge of the structure, composition, in situ behavior under outside stimulus, electronic behavior, or other characterization feature, of materials. The impact of the advance on materials research is the primary consideration in making this award, which is not limited to the method of characterization or the class of materials observed.

The Materials Research Society has named Stephen J. Pennycook, a Corporate Fellow of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with a joint faculty appointment at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, to receive the Innovation in Materials Characterization Award for his "pioneering use of aberration-corrected Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy in the characterization of materials at the atomic scale."  

MRS acknowledges the generosity of Professors Gwo-Ching Wang and Toh-Ming Lu in endowing this award.  Nomination deadline for future IMC Awards: October 1.
 

Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy—Seeing the Atoms More Clearly

This talk traced the history of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) from its invention by Baron Manfred von Ardenne, through the innovations by Albert Crewe, into the era of aberration-corrected microscopy with high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) Z-contrast imaging and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) [1]. Highlights along the way include the first atomic resolution Z-contrast images of crystals [2], the explanation of their incoherent characteristics that allow direct interpretation [3], and the first atomic resolution EELS [4]. The combination is unrivalled for determining atomic and electronic structure at interfaces, and made possible the first direct determination of grain boundary atomic structure [5]. The introduction of a 300 kV STEM allowed direct resolution of the dumbbell in Si and GaAs [6]. Following the successful correction of lens aberrations, Z-contrast STEM gained the record for image resolution [7], and enabled the first spectroscopic identification of a single atom inside a single-atomic column in a crystal [8]. Today, with 5th order correctors, resolution has reached 0.5 Å [9,10], and efficient, two-dimensional spectroscopic imaging is feasible [11]. Our ability to see into materials is unprecedented, bringing entirely new views of materials. Examples were presented of graphene, ferroelectrics, ionic conductors and other energy-related materials, together with the unique insights gleaned into the origins of their macroscopic properties.

  1. S. J. Pennycook, Ch. 1. in Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy, eds. S. J. Pennycook and P. D. Nellist, Springer, 2011.
  2. S. J. Pennycook, L. A. Boatner, Nature 336, 565 (1988).
  3. S. J. Pennycook, D. E. Jesson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 938 (1990).
  4. N. D. Browning, M. F. Chisholm, S. J. Pennycook, Nature 366, 143 (1993).
  5. M. M. McGibbon, et al., Science 266, 102 (1994).
  6. S. J. Pennycook, et al., Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A. 354, 2619 (1996).
  7. P. D. Nellist, et al., Science 305, 1741 (2004).
  8. R. Erni, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 096101 (2009).
  9. H. Sawada, et al., J. Electron Microsc. 58, 357 (2009).
  10. M. Varela et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 095502 (2004).
  11. S. J. Pennycook and C. Colliex, MRS Bulletin 37, 13 (2012).
     

Research supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. 

Stephen J. Pennycook Biography

Stephen J. Pennycook is a Corporate Fellow in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and leader of the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Group. He also holds the positions of professor in the University of Tennessee, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and adjoint professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University. He received his PhD in physics from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, in 1978, moving to Oak Ridge in 1982. For the development and application of Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy, he received a Research and Development R&D 100 Award in 1990, the Microbeam Analysis Society Heinrich Award in 1992, the Materials Research Society Medal in 1992, and the Institute of Physics Thomas J. Young Medal and Award in 2001. Pennycook is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Microscopy Society of America, Institute of Physics, and Materials Research Society. His research interests focus on the development of Z contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy with sub-Angstrom resolution, and applications to materials science. He has authored 38 books and book chapters, 389 publications in refereed journals, and has given 200 invited presentations on the development and application of atomic resolution Z-contrast microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy.

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