FEI Titan 80-300 STEM

The FEI Titan 80-300 STEM is a scanning transmission electron microscope equipped with a field emission electron gun, a three-condenser lens system, a monochromator unit, and a Cs probe corrector (CEOS), a post-column energy filter system (Gatan Tridiem 865 ER) as well as a Gatan 2k slow scan CCD system. Characterised by a STEM resolution of 80 pm at 300 kV, the instrument was one of the first of a small number of sub-ångström resolution scanning transmission electron microscopes in the world when commissioned in 2006.

Typical Applications and Limitations of Use

The FEI Titan 80-300 STEM allows a variety of advanced scanning transmission electron microscopy investigations to a wide range of materials. Techniques like electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), energy filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM), high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM) with detectors for bright-field, annular dark-field, and high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) imaging, electron tomography (ET), and combinations of the previous techniques.

The FEI Titan 80-300 STEM is not intended for the investigation of aqueous, contaminated, ferromagnetic or organic samples without further discussions with both of the instruments officers and the ER-C general management.

Sample Environment

Apart from the special case of the utilisation of dedicated cooling or heating stages, the FEI Titan 80-300 STEM will allow samples to be investigated either under room temperature or liquid nitrogen cooling conditions at a vacuum level of about 10–8 mbar. Besides this standard setup, the sample environment can be adapted to various conditions, e.g. thermal treatment under vacuum or under gas atmosphere up to 1 bar using a MEMS-based closed-cell holder, or the application of external electric or magnetic fields to samples, making use of a wide portfolio of in situ TEM holders available at the ER-C.

Technical Specifications

Electron acceleration voltage200 kV … 300 kV
Electron beam current< 140 nA
Resolution (STEM) @ 300 kV< 80 pm
System energy resolution @ 300 kV & 40pA< 0.12 eV

Specimen Stages

double tilt low background holder± 40 °
high field of view single tilt tomography holder± 70 °
dual-axis tomography holder± 50 °
on axis rotation tomography holder360 °
further in situ specimen stages available 

Detectors

Peltier-cooled Ultrascan 2k charge coupled device (CCD) camera. (Gatan)

Tridiem 865 ER image filter (GIF) with fully 2nd and 3rd order and partially 4th order corrected prisms and a maximum field of view of 17 µm for imaging and 120 mR for diffraction analyses, with additional STEM detectors implemented. (Gatan)

Model 3000 HAADF detector. (Fischione)

Instrument related Publications

Heggen M, Houben L, and Feuerbacher M. Plastic deformation mechanism in complex solids. Nature Materials 9 (2010) 332 – 336. DOI: 10.1038/NMAT2713.

Gan L, Heggen M, Rudi S, Strasser P (2012). Core-shell Compositional Fine Structures of Dealloyed PtxNi1-x Nanoparticles and their Impact on Oxygen Reduction Catalysis. Nano Letters 12 (2012) 5423−5430. DOI: 10.1021/nl302995z

Gan L, Heggen M, Strasser P, O’Malley R. Understanding and Controlling Nanoporosity Formation for Improving the Stability of Bimetallic Fuel Cell Catalysts. Nano Letters 13 (2013) 1131–1138. DOI: 10.1021/nl304488q

Cui C H, Gan L, Heggen M, Rudi S, and Strasser P. Atomic-scale insight in the superior activity and structural stability of shape-selective octahedral Pt alloy fuel cell nanocatalysts. Nature Materials 12 (2013) 765–771. DOI: 10.1038/nmat3668