HTSM topsector funding for Ali Mohammadi-Gheidari and Jacob Hoogenboom

Background
The continuous development of advanced electron microscope components (lenses, sources, aberration correctors) have made electron microscopy a key enabling technology for high-resolution inspection in materials and life sciences and in industry. These components however tend to be technologically complex and bulky, making high-resolution microscopes relatively large and expensive (1-5 M€). Microfabrication (MEMS-based components) offers a route to shrink the size of these components, potentially leading to drastic reductions in costs and footprint. Moreover, MEMS components can give rise to new functionality such as the MEMS-fabricated hole array that is used to generate multiple beam-lets in our new multi-beam scanning electron microscope. To fully unlock the potential of MEMS-components for cheaper and higher resolution electron microscopy, MEMS-based alternative to standard components have to be manufactured and the interaction of MEMS-sized structures with the propagating electron beams has to be studied in more detail.

Project goal 
We propose to optimize the design and construction process of MEMS-based electron microscope components such as aberration correctors and beam-splitters for high-resolution microscopy (Roadmaps Advanced Instrumentation & Nanotechnology). We will study the electron optics performance of designed and fabricated components both experimentally and via computer simulations, including study of the interaction of energetic electrons with the micron- and nanoscale patterned features that form the functional units in the MEMS-components (Roadmap Nanotechnology).