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The ECA kindly invites you to the 36th ECA Lunch webinar:
Abstract
Understanding the atomic structure is fundamental for the development of materials with improved properties. While X-ray methods allow diverse sample environments, they often times lack contrast for light elements and cause significant radiation damage. In contrast, the strong interaction in conventional electron diffraction restricts sample thickness to the nanometer range.
We have applied the method of MeV electron diffraction with an electron wavelength of 0.003 Å for ab initio 3D structure determination at atomic resolution. Using ultrashort electron pulses from the REGAE accelerator at DESY (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Hamburg, Germany), we obtained high-quality diffraction data from muscovite and 1T-TaS₂, enabling the accurate determination of structural details like the displacive modulation of TaS₂ and the hydrogen site in muscovite. The increased penetration depth of MeV electrons allowed for structure determination from samples significantly thicker than those typically applicable in electron diffraction.
Sample preparation is a particular challenge for the used setup, since the size of the electron beam of several hundred micrometers requires ‘pancake’-shaped samples with similar lateral dimensions but at the same time a thickness of ideally less than one micrometer. To overcome this limitation, we have implemented a 3-GHz bunch train mode at REGAE. This mode allows us to generate a micrometer sized electron beam with a coherence length of up to 10 nm. In future, this mode enables structure determinations from protein microcrystals at room temperature with a time resolution in the lower microsecond range. These experiments will particularly benefit from the reduced radiation damage and the improved visibility of hydrogen atoms.
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About the ECA Lunch webinars:
The ECA lunch webinars with an educational or scientific focus were invented following the strong wish to strengthen and vitalize the European crystallographic community. They are a monthly webinar series by the European Crystallographic Association (ECA) and involve all GIGs/SIGs.
The webinars are organized in an online setting such as Zoom (45min + 15min Q&A) and take place every first or second (depending on the schedule of other ECA activities) Thursday of a month at lunchtime (1:00 PM CET). Webinars will be announced via social media, mailing list, and here.
The webinars are organized by a steering committee of GIG01-members:
Breternitz, Joachim
Gaidamaka, Anna
Germann, Luzia
Hans, Philipp
Mazzeo, Paolo P.
Morana, Marta
Pisacic, Mateja
Prencipe, Michele
Advisory board:
Heinemann, Udo
van der Lee, Arie
