This is an archive copy of the IUCr web site dating from 2008. For current content please visit https://www.iucr.org.

Electron Diffraction/Microscopy Books, software, research groups

International Union Of Crystallography. Commission on Electron Diffraction.

Last updated by JCHS and J.Wu: 06/ 05.

http://www.iucr.ac.uk

Commission membership from August 2002:

J.C.H. Spence (Chair) J.A. Eades (Secretary), Li Fang Hua, Dirk van Dyck J. Gjonnes. C. Rossouw, Xiao-Dong Zou. N. Tanaka

Consultants: L.-M. Peng, L. Marks, A. Avilov, D. Dorset.

Please send a note to spence@asu.edu if you wish to modify or extend this list.

The transmission electron microscope (TEM) is a powerful tool for imaging materials and organic structures at the atomic level. The images are projections through thin films between 10nm and several microns thick. The TEM also provides diffraction patterns from nanoscale regions, and chemical analysis using secondary emissions such as X-rays, cathodoluminescence, secondary or backscattered electrons, and energy-loss spectra from nanoscale regions. Diffraction patterns from the smallest (subnanometer) region are called convergent-beam electron diffraction patterns (CBED). This web page provides links to some research groups, materials, books, and software in the field. The resolution of the best high-resolution electron microscopes (HREM) is now about one Angstrom (0.1nm), so that columns of atoms may be seen directly in projection. High resolution electron diffraction (HRED) is also a powerful method. Energy-loss spectra (ELS), which provide similar information to soft X-ray absorption spectra, may be obtained from sub-nanometer regions of these films. The nanotube was recently discovered by TEM, and amongst many other macromolecules (eg membrane proteins), the structure of the ribosome has recently been solved to 1nm resolution by tomographic cryomicroscopy (TEM). This web page emphasizes work in electron diffraction and cryomicroscopy, but also includes material on microanalysis (eg ELS, EDX) and HREM. Electron Backscattered Diffraction is a powerful method for texture analysis (local crystallography) of bulk crystals using a modified SEM (see section I).

Here follows some brief notes on 1. Forthcoming conferences. 2. Links to some active research groups 3. Useful books, software etc 4. Recent IUCr reports.

 HOW TO INDEX DIFFRACTION PATTERNS, PHASE IDENTIFICATION.

-See the three books in bold under "Books" below.

-See WebEmaps program and other software (eg Argonne) listed under K below.

-See Williams and Carter book in section 3 below for detailed instructions, chapter 18.

-See Andrews et al book in section 3 below for lots of worked examples.

-See Edington and Champness books in section 3 below.

-See also http://www.uni-mainz.de/~kolb/index_englisch.htm

- JCPDS-ICDD Powder diffraction file. http://www.icdd.com/. Identify crystalline phases from their diffraction data.

HOW TO DETERMINE THE SPACE GROUP OF A NANOCRYSTAL BY CBED.

- See books "Electron beam analysis of materails" by Loretto and "Electron Microdiffraction" by Spence and Zuo for detailed worked examples and references. Both in section 3 below.

- See especially "Glide planes and screw axes in CBED" by A. Eades in "Microbeam Analysis" 1988, p. 75. San Francisco Press.

- See books on CBED by M. Tanaka (4 volumes) in 3 below.

- See Williams and Carter book in section 3 below for detailed instructions, chapter 21.

HOW TO DO CRYOMICROSCOPY – TEM OF PROTEINS IN ICE.

-Read all the papers in 2F below !

TEM/STEM FOR MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION. SEEING ATOMS.

- See books by Reimer, Hirsch et al, Williams and Carter, Cowley, Loretto, Thomas, Spence, Horiuchi, Browning and Pennycook, Agar (excellent introduction) below.

 1. Forthcoming or recent conferences.

2006

2005

4 July - 8 July, 2005
Electron Crystallography School
Organisation: Jilin University, Changchun, China. (Xiaodong and Sven).

Electron Crystallography School, 2-8 September 2005
Brussels, Belgium
Organisation: Dr. Stavros Nicolopoulos,University of
Valencia, Spain & NanoMegas, Belgium

·         Course on CEMOVIS: Cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections
European Network of Excellence on 3D EM
9 - 14 May, 2005
Lausanne, Switzerland
Organisation: University of Lausanne

 

2. Links to some research groups active in electron crystallography.

A. General.

European Crystallographic Association, Special Interest Group: Forum on electron crystallography: http://www.gfe.rwth-aachen.de/sig-ec/EC_main.htm

(Ute Kolb, kolb@uni-mainz.de).

American Crystallography Association, Special Interest Group on Electron Crystallography

http://cbed.mse.uiuc.edu/sig/

http://www.hwi.buffalo.edu/ACA/ (J.M.Zuo, jianzuo@uiuc.edu)

Microscopy Society of America. Electron diffraction resources

http://www.msa.microscopy.com/

Japanese Electron Diffraction Society.

 B. Angle-Integrated Intensities. Electron Precession Cameras, Electron diffractometry.

See: R. Vincent & P.A. Midgley (1994) Ultramicroscopy 53 (19949271-282.

B.S. Berg, et al Ultramicroscopy 1998 (74), 147 - 157.
J. Gjønnes et al Acta Cryst. 1998 (A54), 306 - 319.

A. Avilov et al. J. Appl Cryst. 1999 (32) 1033-1038

R. Vincent: http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/research/microstructures/index.html

J. Gjonnes: jon.gjonnes@fys.uio.no

L. D. Marks: http://www.numis.nwu.edu/internet/Staff/faculty.html

D.L. Dorset: dldorset@erenj.com

W. Sinkler: http://www.numis.nwu.edu/internet/Staff/wharton/

A. Avilov avilov@ns.crys.ras.ru

C. CBED (LACBED, QCBED)

Cambridge Materials Science, UK. (P. Midgely)

http://www-hrem.msm.cam.ac.uk/

Morniroli Group (LACBED) jean-paul.morniroli@univ-lille1.fr.

http://www.univ-lille1.fr/lmpgm

Spence group. Electronic oxides, QCBED, organic films, nanostructures,

STEM lithography. http://www.public.asu.edu/~jspence/

Zuo group. CBED, strain analyses, oxide structures

http://cbed.mse.uiuc.edu/index.html

Microstructures group (Vincent, Cherns, Steeds). CBED, holography, GaN, diamond

http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/research/microstructures/index.html

Peng group. Nanostructures made from carbon and layered metal oxides, nanoelectronics, CBED, plm@ele.pku.edu.cn

Yimei Zhu: http://www.bnl.gov/tem/

Michiyoshi Tanaka: http://xes.tagen.tohoku.ac.jp/prof.tanaka/tanaka.html

http://sirius.cirse.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~tanakalab/denken/IUCr.html

Kenji Tsuda: http://xes.tagen.tohoku.ac.jp/tsuda/tsuda.htm

M. Saunders martin@cmm.uwa.edu.au

A.G. Fox: http://web.nps.navy.mil/~me/fox.html

L. D. Marks: http://www.numis.nwu.edu/internet/Staff/faculty.html

Bin Jiang: http://www.public.asu.edu/~jiangb/

C.J. Humphreys: http://www-hrem.msm.cam.ac.uk/people/humphreys/

S. Matsumura: syo@nucl.kyushu-u.ac.jp

P. Nakashima: http://www-personal.monash.edu.au/~nakashim/inside.html

Wolfgang Jaeger: www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/matan/

Paul Voyles: http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~voyles/

R. Holmstad: randih@phys.ntnu.no

R. Weng's group (Wuhan) http://cem.whu.edu.cn

V.Streltsov, A. Johnson c/o M. Saunders.

D. HREM + TED.

Imaging with TED for phase extension etc.

Li Fang-Hua, http://cryst.iphy.ac.cn/

H.W. Zandbergen, http://dutsm43.stm.tudelft.nl/

Hovmuller: Electron crystallography: development of methods and

software, quasicrystals and approximants.

http://www.fos.su.se/~svenh/index.html

A. Avilov. Electron structure analysis, quantitative measurement of electrostatic potential, software development, diffractometry: avilov@crys.ras.ru

V.Yu. Kolosov. Development of TEM bend-contour technique and software; electron diffraction for bent crystal/lattice, spherulites and textured films: vladkol@usue.ru

Electron Diffraction, electron energy loss spectroscopy and imaging of thin film materials. We do energy filtered electron diffraction, studies of near edge for structural analysis, simulation of structure using ab initio and calculations: D. R. McKenzie, M. M. Bilek, V. Keast and S. Ringer: mckenzie@physics.usyd.edu.au

K. Takayanagi group in Tokyo Institute of Technology: nanoscience, surface, http://wwwsurf.phys.titech.ac.jp/nanoscience/

 

E Applications

E-1. Organic thin films, polymers, and small molecules (structure analysis).

D.L. Dorset: dldorset@erenj.com or dldorset@exxonmobil.com

I.G. Voigt-Martin: voigtmar@mail.uni-mainz.de

C. Gilmore: http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/staff/chris/index.htm

U. Kolb: http://www.uni-mainz.de/~kolb/

J.R. Fryer: http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~bob/fryer.html

Spence group. http://www.public.asu.edu/~jspence/

M.R. Libera, Stevens group: http://www.mat.stevens-tech.edu/faculty/libera.html

 E-2. Inorganic Materials, Non metals (structure analysis, CMR, High Tc, ceramics etc.)

O. Terasaki, Framework structures. Terasaki@imr.tohoku.ac.jp

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory National Center for Electron Microscopy http://ncem.lbl.gov/frames/center.htm

S. Hovmöller: Electron crystallography: development of methods and software, quasicrystals and approximants. http://www.fos.su.se/~svenh/index.html

L. D. Marks: Surfaces, etc. http://www.numis.nwu.edu/internet/Staff/faculty.html

K.H. Kuo: Structures of quasicrystals and their crystalline approximants: http://www.blem.ac.cn/english/introdution/introdution.htm

Shindo group. Magnetic materials, phase transformation, energy-filteredED,

holography http://www.iamp.tohoku.ac.jp/~asma

W. Sinkler: http://www.numis.nwu.edu/internet/Staff/wharton/

X.D. Zou: zou@struc.su.se

T.E. Weirich: weirich@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de

A. Avilov; electron diffraction analysis, electrostatic potentials. avilov@ns.crys.ras.ru

E-3. Alloy Phases

J. Gjonnes: jon.gjonnes@fys.uio.no

Jing Zhu: jzhu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

De Hosson' group: http://rugth30.phys.rug.nl/msc_matscen/

F. Biology. Cryomicroscopy.

Glaeser group. Cell membrane proteins, automation of single-particle EM

http://mcb.berkeley.edu/, http://www.lbl.gov/lifesciences/main/index.html,

http://www.lbl.gov/LBL-Programs/pbd/

R. Henderson: http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/research/SS/Henderson_R/Henderson_R.html

B.K. Jap: BKJap@lbl.gov

K.H. Downing: KHDowning@lbl.gov

W. Chiu: http://scbmb.bcm.tmc.edu/people/gcc_faculty_77

W. Baumeister: http://www.biochem.mpg.de/baumeister/personal/baumeister.html

T.S. Baker: http://www.bio.purdue.edu/Bioweb/People/Faculty/baker.html

Z.H. Zhou: http://hub.med.uth.tmc.edu/~hong/

N. Unwin: http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/groups/nu/index.html

Y. Fujiyoshi yoshi@em.biophys.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Diffraction from laser-aligned hydrated protein beams. http://www.public.asu.edu/~jspence/

G. STEM

Prof J. Silcox jsilcox@msc.cornell.edu

Dr. S. J. Pennycook: http://www.ornl.gov/bes/BES/amis/staff/pennycook.htm

Dr. P. Batson batson@us.ibm.com

Prof. N. Browning. browning@uic.edu

Prof. Peter J Goodhew Freng: SuperSTEM (aberration corrected STEM project): www.superstem.dl.ac.uk and http://dbweb.liv.ac.uk/engdept/content/centres/microscopy/index.html.

H. HREM.

EMAT-group Antwerp: interface structure, phase transitions, nanostructures,

http://www.ruca.ua.ac.be/emat

Cockayne Group: amorphous materials; nanostructures; aberration

corrected EM; crystalline defects; HREM

http://www-em.materials.ox.ac.uk/people/cockayne/index.html

Z. Zhang : http://www.blem.ac.cn/english/introdution/introdution.htm

D. Smith. Arizona State University.

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory National Center for Electron Microscopy http://ncem.lbl.gov/frames/center.htm

H. Takahashi: http://www.caret.hokudai.ac.jp/UFML/UFMLindex.html

K. Urban Group: http://iffwww.iff.kfa-juelich.de/jcem/

M. Ruhle Group:

Howe Group (UVA): Interfaces, phase transformations, nanoparticles, in-situ studies: http://faculty.virginia.edu/teamhowe/teamhowe.html

Chris Boothroyd: http://www-hrem.msm.cam.ac.uk/~cbb/ http://www.imre.a-star.edu.sg/personal/getListing_action.asp?strID=chris-b

K. Takayanagi, Tokyo Inst. Tech., takayang@phys.titech.ac.jp N. Yamamoto, Tokyo Inst. Tech., nyamamot@phys.titech.ac.jp Y. Tanishiro, Tokyo Inst. Tech., ytanishi@phys.titech.ac.jp H. Minoda, Tokyo Inst. Tech., hminoda@phys.titech.ac.jp Y. Oshima, Tokyo Inst. Tech., ohshima@materia.titech.ac.jp

I. Electron Backscattered S Diffraction (EBSD) and Texture Analysis

Electron Backscattering Diffraction in Materials Science, A. J. Schwartz, M. Kumar and B. L. Adams (Eds.) Plenum (New York, 2000)

Eades group. EBSD, defect and strain analysis, CBED

http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Einmatsci/faculty/Eades.html or jae5@lehigh.edu 

J. Diffractive Imaging. Images from diffraction patterns. Fienup-Gerchberg-Saxton. Charge-flipping algorithm.

See Ultramicscopy 90, p.1 (2001) and 90, 171 (2001) for a review and references.

See Zuo et al. Atomic resolution imaging of a carbon nanotube from diffraction intensities, Science 300, 1419-1421 (2003).

See Oszlányi & Süto: Ab initio structure solution by charge flipping. Acta Cryst. A60, 134-141 (2004).

See Wu, J.S. & Spence, J.C.H. Reconstruction of complex single-particle images using the charge-flipping algorithm. Acta Cryst. A61,194-200 (2005).

K. Electron crystallography software on the web. (More on the IUCr website - SINCRIS)

WebEmaps (U of Illinois). General TED, Multislice, CBED, X-ray structure factors, draw xtal structures etc. Runs on the web. http://emaps.mrl.uiuc.edu/emaps.asp

EMS. (Stadelman) General HREM, CBED multislice simulation etc. See http://cimesg1.epfl.ch/CIOL/summary.html and Ultramic 21, p. 131 (1987).
Java EMS for Mac OSX, try http://cimewww.epfl.ch/people/stadelmann/jemsntv1_2922w2003.htm

Argonne National Lab software library for EM. Free programs for everything you could need related to TEM and SEM http://www.amc.anl.gov/ANLSoftwareLibrary/

Advanced computing in electron microscopy. E.J.Kirkland. Plenum. New York. 1998.

This book contains a CD of software and source code. Multiple scattering calculations for STEM and TEM images, including phonon scattering. Excellent documentation.

Electron Microdiffraction. Spence and Zuo, 1992. Contains well documented Fortran listings for programs to simulate CBED patterns by Bloch Wave method, and multislice. Indexed patterns shown with HOLZ to speed indexing. Worked example of space-group determination by CBED.

EMLAB. Mac program helps index patterns, find excitation errors and structure factors, draws crystal structures, K-lines, stereograms, CBED geometry, etc. Contact jianzuo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu

Berkeley USA NCEM Software. http://ncem.lbl.gov/frames/software.htm

 3. Books, special issues of journals, tables.

More details, including ISBN numbers and out-of-print books can be found on at specialist booksellers on the web.

"Electron Diffraction in the TEM". P.E.Champness. ISBN 1859961479. Bios 2001 (Royal Micros Soc). Oxford UK.

"Analytical electron microscopy for materials science". D. Shindo, T. Oikawa. Springer (2002). Excellent, up to date, practical . (ELS, EDX, CBED, Alchemi, Sample prep, holography etc).

"High resolution electron microscopy and related techniques". P. Buseck, J.Cowley and L.Eyring, Eds. Oxford Univ Press.(1989). Comprehensive overview.

Electron Backscattering Diffraction in Materials Science, A. J. Schwartz, M. Kumar and B. L. Adams (Eds.) Plenum (New York, 2000)

Atlas of Backscattering Kikuchi Diffraction Patterns D J Dingley, K Z Baba-Kishi and V Randle IOP (Bristol, 1995)

Introduction to Texture Analysis V Randle and O Engler Gordon and Breach (Amsterdam 2000)

Texture and Anisotropy U F Kocks, C. N. Tomé and H-R Wenk Cambridge (Cambridge 1998)

Elastic and Inelastic Scattering in Electron Diffraction and Imaging Z L Wang Plenum (New York 1995)

Introduction to Analytical Electron Microscopy J J Hren, J I Goldstein and D. C Joy (Eds) Plenum (New York 1979)

Principles of Analytical Electron Microscopy D C Joy, A D Romig and J I Goldstein (Eds) Pleum (New York 1986)

Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction of Alloy Phases J Mansfield (Ed) Adam Hilger (Bristol 1984)

Large-angle convergent beam electron diffraction. J.P. Morniroli. (Society of French Microscopists. Paris). 2002. In english. ISBN 2-901483-05-4

 Diffraction Physics. J.M.Cowley. North-Holland. 3rd Edition. 1990.

Advanced computing in electron microscopy. E.J.Kirkland. Plenum. New York. 1998.

"Transmission Electron Microscopy and Diffractometry of Materials". B. Fultz and J. Howe. Springer. 2001. Excellent coverage of theory and worked examples.

"Fundamentals of HREM". S. Horiuchi. North Holland. 1994.

"Structural Electron Crystallography" D. L. Dorset, Plenum/Kluwer. 1997. Mainly organics.

"Transmission electron microscopy: A textbook for materials science". D.B.Williams and C.B.Carter. Plenum Press. 1996. Pedagogically sound introductory text. Indispensible.

See http://www1.cems.umn.edu/research/carter/book.html

"High Resolution Electron Microscopy". J.C.H.Spence. Oxford Univ Press. 2003. (3rd Edn). How to do HREM, and theory.

Electron energy loss spectroscopy in the electron microscope. R.F. Egerton. Plenum. New York. 2nd edition 1996.

"Convergent beam electron diffraction IV". M.Tanaka, M.Terauchi, K.Tsuda, K.Saitoh. JEOL Ltd. Tokyo. and earlier volumes. Superb collection of CBED patterns.

"Electron microdiffraction". J.Spence and J.M. Zuo (Plenum, 1992). How to do quantitative CBED. Worked example of finding space-group from CBED patterns.

"Electron Diffraction Techniques". Vols 1 and 2. Oxford/IUCr Press. J.Cowley, ed. 1993.

"High resolution electron microscopy for materials science". D.Shindo, K.Hiraga.Springer. 1998.

Beautiful collection of HREM images and examples of their analysis.

"Electron Microscopy of thin crystals". P.B.Hirsch et al. Krieger. New York. 1977.

Classic text with many worked examples. Indispensible.

"Electron-diffraction Analysis of Clay Mineral Structures". B. B Zvyagin. Plenum. 1967

"Electron Diffraction Structure Analysis". B. K. Vainshtein. Pergamon. 1964

"Intro. to Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy", R. J. Keyse, A.

J. Garratt-Reed, P.J. Goodhew and G. W. Lorimer, (BIOS Scientific

Publishers, Royal Micros. Soc., 1998)

"Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy", Rik Brydson, (BIOS Scientific

Publishers, Royal Micros. Soc., 2001).

"Transmission Electron Microscopy. 4th edit.", L. Reimer, (Springer-Verlag 1997).

Excellent broad coverage with all the basic physics, including radiation damage. Indispensible.

"Electron Holography", A. Tonomura, (Springer-Verlag, 1999)

"Introduction to electron holography". E. Voelkl, Ed. (1998). Plenum.

"Practical Electron Microscopy in Materials Science", J. W. Edington

(Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976)

"Electron beam analysis of materials" by M. Loretto. Chapman and Hall.1984. Excellent.

"Electron microscopy in heterogeneous catalysis". P. Gai and E. Boyes. Inst Phys. (2003).

"Interpretation of electron diffraction patterns" Andrews, K., Dyson, D., Keown, S. (1971). Plenum New York.

"Crystallography and crystal defects". Reprinted by Techbooks, 4012 Williamsburg Court, Fairfax, Virginia, USA 22032. Extremely useful. Highly recommended.

JCPDS-ICDD Powder diffraction file. http://www.icdd.com/ . Identify crystalline phases from their diffraction data.

Special issue of Zeitschrift Kirstallographie on electron crystallography. 2003/4. U.Kolb.

Journal of Microscopy and Microanalysis (mid 2003) Special issue on Quantitative Electron Diffraction. J.C.H. Spence, editor.

"Electron Microscopy and Analysis" the third edition. (2001), PJ Goodhew, FJ Humphreys and R Beanland Taylor & Francis, London, ISBN 0-7484-0968-8

"Characterisation of Radiation Damage by Transmission Electron Microscopy", (2000), M.L. Jenkins and M.A. Kirk, http://bookmark.iop.org/bookpge.htm?ID=94Pn8IaWGwQsSz4pC1GCzj3w&book=885h

"Introduction to Conventional Transmission Electron Microscopy", Prof. Marc De Graef: http://titles.cambridge.org/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521620066 (Paper Back) http://titles.cambridge.org/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521629950 (Hard Cover)

HOW TO INDEX A TRANSMISSION ELECTRON DIFFRACTION PATTERN See Fultz and Howe book Sections 1.1, 5.3.2 and 6.1. See Champness and Loretto books HOW TO DETERMINE THE SPACE GROUP OF A NANOCRYSTAL BY CBED. See Fultz and Howe book Section 6.5 USING A TEM FOR MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION AND SEEING ATOMS. See Fultz and Howe book pages 84-89, 155, 566-576

 

4. Recent IUCr Reports.

Triennial report of Int Union of Cryst Commission on Electron Diffraction, Jan 2002 - Dec 2004. Written  Feb 2005 by John C.H. Spence.

 

                The last three years have been a time of great excitement in electron diffraction and microscopy, resulting partly from the boom in nanoscience, and partly from breakthroughs in new instrumentation. These have included the commercial development of aberration-correctors and monochromators, and of field-emission scanning transmission instruments (STEMs) and TEMs capable of  imaging and spectroscopy with sub-Angstrom spatial resolution, a long-sought goal finally attained. The field-emission source (brighter than current generation synchrotron/undulator systems) has allowed inner-shell energy-loss spectra and images of individual dopant atoms in crystals to be obtained, while Prof Zewail's Nobel Prize has spurred the development of sub-picosecond electron diffraction systems. The discovery of the carbon nanotube by high-resolution TEM has stimulated much new high-resolution in-situ imaging at high pressures for catalysts, while the new electron precession camera has been fully developed and applied. Oxygen ordering in high-Tc materials and defects at interfaces continue to be imaged at atomic resolution, while a major development  has been the achievement of tomographic imaging in materials science by TEM at sub-nanometer resolution for mesoporous materials. The sub-nanometer probe of the STEM, and the much greater sensitivity of electron structure factors to ionicity than X-ray, at low angles, has allowed highly accurate extinction-free quantification of convergent-beam electron diffraction patterns to produce charge-density maps of unprecedented precision for the study of bonding. In biology, cryo-EM has produced whole-cell tomographic images at 5nm resolution, while single-particle work continues to explore the ribosome and other macromolecules and membrane proteins which cannot be crystallised at sub-nanometer resolution.

                These years have been crowded with teaching activity and conferences, some of which included the well attended (90 attendees) Erice/NATO school in Sicily in summer 2004 on electron crystallography, and workshops on time-resolved electron diffraction and imaging at Livermore in summer 2004, international and national conferences on electron microscopy in many countries, the 2004 Gordon conference on charge densities, a school on electron crystallography in Berkeley in April 2004, similar schools in Bejing (100 attendees in Dec 2002) and Moscow amongst many others. The European Crystallography Meeting in Budapest (August 2004) held special sessions on electron crystallography. D. Dorset won the Patterson award of the ACA in 2002 for his work in electron crystallography of organic materials. There have been several special issues of journals devoted to electron crystallography and atomic-resolution electron microscopy.

                The CED now has a web  page, accessed  thro the IUCr web page and CED links, which contains a list of teaching materials including books and free software. Also given is a list of conferences and links to web pages of many active research groups , arranged by applications in materials science and biology. The CED commission, chaired by J. Spence, will meet at the IUCr Congress in Florence, 2005.

 

Annual report of Int Union of Cryst Commission on Electron Diffraction, for 2004. Written  Feb 2005 by John Spence.

 

                The highlight of  2004 has been the School for Electron Crystallography, held at Erice, in Sicily, June 9 -20 at the NATO advanced study institute. This was capably organisec by T. Weirich, J.Labar, and X. Zou. About 90 participants and lecturerers attended over a week of lectures on all aspects of electron crystallography, including microdiffraction, atomic-resolution imaging and new approaches to solving nanocrystalline structures by electron diffraction. Other topics included polymorphism, phasing electron diffraction data, multiple scattering, symmetry determination, lab and software sessions, atomic resolution imaging, electron diffraction from organics and zeolites, charge-density measurement, lattice parameters, and gas phase diffraction. A recurring theme was the ability to treat small crystals whose size prevents the use of X-ray diffraction, and the power of imaging for the study of defects.

                The development of time-resolved electron diffraction continued with the first US National Workshop on Ultrafast Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories on April 16-17, 2004.  51 participants from universities, National Labs and companies attended two days of lectures on fast imaging and diffraction with high energy electron  beams, including those planning to use the electron accelerators for synchrotrons directly for this pupose. The current instruments at Caltech, Brown, U. Toronto and Florida State were reviewed, together with new ones planned at Michigan State, Univ of Illinois and Berkeley. The pioneering imaging instrument in Berlin will soon move to Livermore. Talk topics included the design of photocathodes, electron lenses, detectors and space-charge limitations and pulse compression. The much larger cross-section for electron scattering than for X-ray was emphasized, while the source brightness of field-emission electron sources is known to be brighter than that of current generation synchrotron-undulator systems. The attainment of 700 femtosecond electron diffraction results in single-shot by Cao et al at Florida was discussed, as was Zuo's iterative phasing of continuous diffraction data by the Fienup-Gerchberg-Saxton method. Applications in materials science and biology were reviewed.

                The  Gordon Conference on Charge-density measurements held from July 4 2004 included a morning session on electron diffraction methods for accurate charge-density measurement. The amplification of sensitivity at low angles in electron scattering over X-rays was emphasized (due to the Mott-Bethe relationship), while the ability to obtain extinction-free measurements by using an electron probe smaller than one mosaic block was also described, with applications to several oxides.

   About 20 students, postdocs and industrial researchers attended a week-long school in electron diffraction at the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, Ca., USA, starting on April 19, 2004. Lectures by L. Marks, J. Zuo, W. Sinkler, Spence, Dahmen, Eades and Kilaas covered all aspects of electron crystallography, including CBED, SAD, Diffuse scattering, powder patterns for phase identification, combining SAD with HREM, and basic theory, from dynamical theory, Bloch waves, channelling and multislice,  to direct methods. Special topics included diffractive imaging and the precession camera. Afternoons were devoted to practical classes and computer use for simulations. One set of programs for most electron crystallography purposes, now executable on the web for all to use, can be found at  http://emaps.mrl.uiuc.edu/ . A similar school may be held next year.

 

 

 

Annual report of Int Union of Cryst Commission on Electron Diffraction, for 2003. Written  April 2004  by John Spence.

 

 

As the boom in nanoscience continues, the past year has been a remarkable year for electron diffraction. Especially notable, following the award of the Nobel prize to A. Zewail, has been the growth of time-resolved electron diffraction in the gas phase, with pulse durations now down to 400fs. While coulomb interactions limit speed compared to pulsed X-ray work, count-rates are much higher.  Fast electron microscope imaging, still at the nanosecond timescale, is now also growing with a large new program at Livermore Labs, Ca., USA.  An equally remarkable highlight from the past year is the publication of the first atomic-resolution image of a carbon nanotube (Science, 300,1419). This aberration-free "lensless image"   was obtained almost entirely from the electron diffraction pattern of a single tube, using new iterative phasing methods which can now solve the phase problem for non-periodic objects.   Throughout the world, scientists are placing orders for the new generation of aberration-corrected electron microscopes, which, together with the new electron monochromators for energy-loss spectroscopy, promise to revolutionize the field. (In the USA, the Dept of Energy "TEAM" project plans to install these in several national labs over the next few years, for example). In biology, the appearance of TEMs dedicated to liquid-helium cooled cryo-microscopy for single-particle, three-dimensional imaging of proteins which cannot be crystallized is producing major advances, and the automation of electron tomography proceeds apace in both materials science and biology. The publication of the first subnanometer-resolution, three-dimensional views inside a mesoporous silicate catalyst must also rank as one of the year's highlights. The year has seen many conferences devoted to electron diffraction and imaging, including MC2003 in Dresden (Sept 7, 2003), the Frontiers of Electron Microscopy conference in Berkeley Ca (Oct 5, 2003), a workshop in Cairns, Australia (June 30, 2003) on the non-crystallographic phase problem , a conference honoring John Cowley, FRS in Arizona (Jan 3, 2003), the Moscow electron crystallography school, a diffraction school in Delft (Jan 22, 2003), the Microscopy Society of America meeting (Aug 3, 2003),  the UK EMAG meeting in Oxford (3 Sept 03), a school on advanced HREM in China at the end of 2002 (see below, not reviewed last year) and several conferences in Japan, amongst many others.

 

 

Advanced High-Resolution Electron Microscopy  (Dec.23. China 2002)

There were totally one hundred Chinese participants attending the Workshop/ School. Among them three were from other countries, five from Taiwan and one from Hong Kong. Ten experts were invited to given main lectures. They are Dr. Jiang-hua Chen (Delft Univ.), Dr. Jin Zou (Sydney Univ.), Dr. Di Wang (Fritz-Haber Institute, Berlin), Prof. Fu-rong Chen (Tsinghua Univ. Taiwan), Prof. Rong Wang (Peking Univ. of Science & Technology), Prof. Xiao-jing Wu (Fudan Univ.), Prof. Man-ling Sui (Institite of Metals, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)), Prof. Hai-fu Fan, Prof. Fang-hua Li and Mr. Huai-bin Wang (Institute of Physics, CAS)

   The workshop/School aims at offering a forum to communicate the new theory and new methods in investigating the crystal structures and microstructures with a resolution higher than the resolution of electron microscope. The topics of this Workshop/School mainly concentrate on solving the inverse problem in high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) by image processing. Two image processing techniques which were studied most extensively in mainland China and Europe, respectively, and the technique recently developed in Taiwan were introduced including the theories, methods and applications. This indicates a new prospect in the application of HREM. In addition, the advantage and problems of spherical aberration corrected HREM was discussed.

    This Workshop/School offered a good opportunity to all participants to learn the fundamental theory and/or recent advances in the field of HREM, and also to report their achievements.

2003 IUCr report by Commission on Electron Diffraction

As the boom in nanoscience continues, the past year has been a remarkable year for electron diffraction. Especially notable, following the award of the Nobel Prize to A. Zewail, has been the growth of time-resolved electron diffraction in the gas phase, with pulse durations now down to 400  fs. While Coulomb interactions limit speed compared to pulsed X-ray work, count rates are much higher. Fast electron-microscope imaging, still at the nanosecond timescale, is now also growing with a large new programme at Livermore Laboratories, California, USA. An equally remarkable highlight from the past year is the publication of the first atomic-resolution image of a carbon nanotube (Science, 300, 1419). This aberration-free `lensless image' was obtained almost entirely from the electron diffraction pattern of a single tube, using new iterative phasing methods that can now solve the phase problem for non-periodic objects. Throughout the world, scientists are placing orders for the new generation of aberration-corrected electron microscopes, which, together with the new electron monochromators for energy-loss spectroscopy, promise to revolutionize the field. (In the USA, the Department of Energy `TEAM' project plans to install these in several national laboratories over the next few years, for example.) In biology, the appearance of TEMs dedicated to liquid-helium-cooled cryomicroscopy for single-particle three-dimensional imaging of proteins that cannot be crystallized is producing major advances, and the automation of electron tomography proceeds apace in both materials science and biology. The publication of the first subnanometre-resolution, three-dimensional views inside a mesoporous silicate catalyst must also rank as one of the year's highlights. The year has seen many conferences devoted to electron diffraction and imaging, including MC2003 in Dresden, Germany (7 September 2003), the Frontiers of Electron Microscopy conference in Berkeley California, USA (5 October 2003), a workshop in Cairns, Australia (30 June 2003) on the non-crystallographic phase problem, a conference honoring J. M. Cowley, FRS, in Arizona, USA (3 January 2003), the Moscow electron crystallography school, a diffraction school in Delft, The Netherlands (22 January 2003), the Microscopy Society of America meeting (3 August 2003), the UK EMAG meeting in Oxford (3 September 2003), a school on advanced HREM in China at the end of 2002 (see below, not reviewed last year) and several conferences in Japan, amongst many others.

NCEM Electron Diffraction School, 19 April 2004

About 20 students, postdocs and industrial researchers attended a week-long school on electron diffraction at the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA, starting on 19 April 2004. Lectures by L. Marks, J. Zuo, W. Sinkler, J. C. H. Spence, U. Dahmen, A. Eades and R. Kilaas covered all aspects of electron crystallography, including CBED, SAD, diffuse scattering, powder patterns for phase identification, combining SAD with HREM, and basic theory, from dynamical theory, Bloch waves, channelling and multislice, to direct methods. Special topics included diffractive imaging and the precession camera. Afternoons were devoted to practical classes and computer use for simulations. One set of programs for most electron crystallography purposes, now executable on the web for all to use, may be found at http://emaps.mrl.uiuc.edu/. A similar school may be held in 2005.

Advanced High-Resolution Electron Microscopy, 23 December 2002

There were in total 100 Chinese participants attending the workshop/school. Ten experts were invited to give main lectures: Jiang-hua Chen (Delft University, The Netherlands), Jin Zou (Sydney University, Australia), Di Wang (Fritz-Haber Institute, Berlin, Germany), Fu-rong Chen (Tsinghua University, Taiwan), Rong Wang (Peking University of Science & Technology, People's Republic of China), Xiao-jing Wu (Fudan University, People's Republic of China), Man-ling Sui [Institute of Metals, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)], Hai-fu Fan, Fang-hua Li and Huai-bin Wang (Institute of Physics, CAS). The workshop/school aimed at offering a forum to communicate new theories and new methods in investigating crystal structures and microstructures with a resolution higher than the resolution of the electron microscope. The topics of this workshop/school mainly concentrated on solving the inverse problem in high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) by image processing. Two image processing techniques that were studied most extensively in the People's Republic of China and Europe, respectively, and the technique recently developed in Taiwan were introduced including theories, methods and applications. This indicated a new prospect in the application of HREM. In addition, the advantages and problems of spherical-aberration-corrected HREM were discussed.

This workshop/school offered a good opportunity to all participants to learn about the fundamental theory and/or recent advances in the field of HREM, and also to report their achievements.

Electron Crystallography School Moscow, Russia – June, 2003

The regular school on Electronic crystallography was carried out in Moscow from June, 23 till June, 27 2003 in the Institute of crystallography of the Russian Academy of Science. It has been organized under the initiative of the Commission on electronic diffraction at the International Union of Crystallographers and at its financial support. Carrying out of the school has been devoted to celebrating 60-years formations of IC RAS. The second important circumstance was that the school was carried out in institute where the method electron diffraction structural analysis (EDSA) was born and was developed within long years, having own traditions and a history. Founders of a method in Russia were Z.Pinsker and B.Vainshtein becoming subsequently the director of the Institute of crystallography. Later a wide range of structures including thin films, metals and alloys, oxides, semoconductors, catalysts and compex minerals have been solved by electron crystallography, in many laboratories around the world.

The objectives of this School was to provide a basic knowledge for PhD students and scientists interested in applying electron crystallography techniques for structure determinations of inorganic materials and nanostructures. The subjects of the school were: image formation and diffraction, kinematical and dynamical theory; direct methods and maximum entropy in theory and practice for crystal and surface structure determination; data processing in HREM images, crystal structure determination; quantitative CBED and its application to crystal structure determination; precise electron diffractometry for quantitative crystal potential and bonding analysis; electron diffraction on specific samples (texture patterns for minerals, diffraction on gases etc.); CCD cameras and image plates for electron crystallography; orientation imaging microscopy. Practical training with software and exercises was an essential part of the School.

Experts known in the field of electronic crystallography have taken part in work of school: L.D.Marks (Chicago university), K.Tsuda (Tohoku University), Hua Jiang (Technical Research Center of Finland), T.Wierich (Aachen university), M.Jemmi (University of Milan), Rene de Kloe (EDAX company). The Russian school has been submitted by 5 lecturers: A.Kiselev, A.Avilov and V.Klechkovskaja (all from Institute of crystallography), L.Vilkov (Moscow State university), and M.Nikolsky (Institute of ore mineralogy- IGEM).

The basic part of students was from Russia (80 %). Many of the registered participants could not arrive on school on financial reasons (because of expensive travel). It concerned also foreign young scientific and Russian participants from the remote regions of Russia and the countries of nearest abroad.

The saturated scientific program has not allowed to give a lot of attention to studying of Moscow and it cultural values. Therefore only one visiting the Moscow Kremlin which has made indelible impression on participants of school has been organized.

Carrying out of school by Institute of crystallography would be impossible without financial support which have carried out the International Union Crystallographers, the Ministry on a science and technologies of Russia, company Interactive Corporation (JEOL) and EDAX company. Due to this not only it was possible to solve many organizational questions, but also to render financial support to the young scientists, mainly, as travel-grants. The big support and assistance in carrying out of school was rendered by the former Chairman of the commission on electron diffraction at IUCr Douglas Dorset and the organizer of previous schools on electronic crystallography in Europe Sven Hofmoller.

Report of 2002 Congress and commission Meeting. Aug 14, Geneva

(J. Spence chair, A. Eades Secretary)

At an earlier meeting of the IUCr executive committee, the current committee was nominated; all those nominated subsequently agreed to serve on the new CED. 6 members of the new committee were present at the Geneva CED meeting

The CED agreed that its mission was to promote electron crystallography and to provide a coordinating intelligence and resource for researchers. The IUCr executive requested that a new web page be established for the CED at the IUCr Chester site. This is it.

The CED discussed forthcoming meetings, especially the January '03 Delft meeting and the recently formed special interest groups of both the European Cryst. Soc. (ECA) and the American Cryst. Soc. (ACA).

A vote of appreciation was expressed to Sven Hovmuller for his work in organising schools in the past, and for his work with the CED.

An extended discussion followed on the possibility of making the CED a home for cryomicroscopists in biology. Bing Jap expressed the view that the materials scientists could learn a lot about quantification of data from the biologists, and no one disagreed. This general idea was supported. It was also agreed that the CED should welcome specialists in HREM and other imaging modes such as electron holography.

 Report of 1999 Congress and Commission Meeting of 11 August 1999.

(D. L. Dorset, chair, S. Hovmõller secretary).

Before the Congress, a workshop on 'Structure factor phase determination in electron crystallography', organized by S.Hovmõller and J. Gjønnes, was held at the Glasgow Convention Center on 4 August and generated lively discussion about various

aspects of crystal structure determination via electron diffraction data.

The Commission sponsored two microsymposia: 'The phase problem in electron crystallography', organized by R. Vincent and D.L. Dorset (5 August) and 'Quantitative electron diffraction and microscopy, organized by D. Van Dyck and J. Gjønnes (11

August). In addition a joint session with the Commission for Powder diffraction, 'Structure solution from powders using electron and powder diffraction techniques' was organized by S. Hovmõller and B. Cernik (13 August).

A number of items were discussed at the Commission meeting, attended by Dorset, Van Dyck, Hovmõller, Li, Gjønnes, and with Jouk Jansen representing Henny Zandbergen. First, Dirk Van Dyck presented the results of a round robin test of software

packages for carrying out multiple beam dynamical scattering calculations. With proper controls, the results are found to be equivalent. This work is to be published in Ultramicroscopy. S. Hovmõller suggested a similar standardized study of an inorganic

material to determine how various approaches might succeed in determining the correct crystal structure from electron scattering data. While other attendees thought that this may be a less easy task than establishing whether or not a computational package

gives useful results, it was agreed that results of such a study might be announced on an expanded web site, linking to various laboratories carrying out such electron crystallographic structure analyses. This suggestion partially answers a suggestion made

by Li Fan-hua that a publication discussing procedures for structure analysis in electron crystallography may result eventually (e.g. to supplement the two volume work already published for the IUCr and edited by John Cowley). Obviously, this web site should be linked to the various other laboratory sites.

Jon Gjønnes discussed the topics to be discussed at the upcoming European Crystallographic meeting in Nancy that may result in microsymposia. He and Sven Hovmõller have been charged to form a SIG on Electron Crystallography within the newly formed European Crystallographic Association. Also relevant are the possible topics to be discussed at the upcoming European Microscopy Meeting to be held in Brno, Czech Republic. Dr. Ingrid Voigt-Martin and Dr. John Fryer have been planning sessions and a tutorial on electron crystallography. In general, there is a need to improve communications between microscopy and crystallographic societies, particularly if both purport to represent and promote research in electron crystallography.