Liquid Helium Cryogenic TEM below 1 Ă
Suk Hyun Sung, Maya Gates, Nishkarsh Agarwal, Yang Zhang, William Millsaps, Miti Shah, Emily Rennich, Cong Li, Pu Yu, Miaofang Chi, Benjamin H. Savitzky, Ismail El Baggari, Robert Hovden
Published: 2025/9/15
Abstract
Next-generation cryogenic transmission electron microscopes (TEM) aim to achieve high-resolution imaging at ultracold sample temperatures (< 90 K) and over extended hold times. Lower temperatures enable atomic-scale characterization with improved beam and dose resilience for organic specimens and access to emergent electronic phases in quantum materials. Side-entry liquid helium cooling stages presently lack the mechanical and thermal stability required to support sub-Angstrom information transfer in modern TEM. Here we demonstrate sub-Angstrom atomic imaging TEM with a side-entry stage at specimen temperatures down to ~20K and with low stage drift and stable hold times.