## Research Activity: Transmission Electron Aberration-corrected Microscope (TEAM)

Division: Scientific User Facilities

Primary Contact(s): Altaf (Tof) Carim (<carim@science.doe.gov>;
301-903-4895)

Division Director: Pedro A. Montano

**Portfolio Description:**

The TEAM project is a Major Item of Equipment project to construct and
operate a new aberration-corrected electron microscope and make this
capability widely available to the materials and nanoscience
communities. The projected improvement in spatial resolution, contrast,
sensitivity, and the flexibility of design of electron optical
instruments will provide unprecedented opportunities to observe directly
the atomic-scale order, electronic structure, and dynamics of individual
nanoscale structures. The TEAM instrument will be optimized for
high-resolution imaging and atomic tomography. The components and
approaches developed will further provide a platform for future
aberration-corrected instruments optimized for different purposes such
as wide-gap in-situ experimentation, ultimate spectroscopy, ultrafast
high-resolution imaging, synthesis, field-free high resolution magnetic
imaging, diffraction and spectroscopy, and other extremes of temporal,
spectral, spatial or environmental conditions.

**Unique Aspects:**

Transmission electron microscopy represents one of the few methods for
obtaining local information with a spatial resolution of 0.1 nm or
better from individual nanometer-scale structures. Aberrations of the
electromagnetic lenses are the primary limitation on electron microscope
resolution and constrain other aspects of the instrument including
available space for in-situ manipulation in the sample chamber. The TEAM
instrument is expected to attain direct spatial resolution of 0.05 nm,
which is better than has been demonstrated for any present instrument.
The project aims to redesign the transmission electron microscope around
aberration-corrected optics, to develop a common platform for a powerful
new nanocharacterization instrument, and to make this instrument widely
available to the materials and nanoscience community via existing BES
user facilities.

**Relationship to Other Programs:**

The project involves a collaboration of the three BES user facilities
for Electron Beam Microcharacterization (at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (LBNL), Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National
Laboratory) and two other BES-supported microscopy groups (at Brookhaven
National Laboratory and at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign). The lead organization and institution of the
principal investigator is LBNL, and the completed instrument will be
installed and operated within the National Center for Electron
Microscopy (NCEM) at LBNL.

**Mission Relevance:**

The need and scientific case for TEAM have been vetted by the Basic
Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) and subgroups of BESAC on
several occasions, including a review in 2000, an update in 2002, and a
2003 assess­ment of facilities roadmapping. The project was subsequently
included as a near-term priority in the Department of Energy (DOE)
Office of Science report, *Facilities for the Future of Science: A
Twenty-Year Outlook*, in November 2003. Upon completion this instrument
will become part of an existing user facility, the NCEM at LBNL, and
will be available to users. The development of this equipment thus is
relevant to a broad range of BES research elements, and has most direct
impact on and interaction with the activities in Electron-beam
Microcharacterization, Structure and Composition of Materials, and
Nanoscience Centers.

**Scientific Challenges:**

A wide variety of major scientific challenges that could be uniquely
addressed by electron scattering methods were outlined by keynote
speakers at a series of workshops convened to discuss and determine the
parameters for the TEAM project. These included:

-   Synthesis and assembly of nanomaterials, and an understanding of
    their properties, especially through local electronic structure
    determination

-   Numerous nanoscale materials issues that currently define the end of
    the roadmap in silicon-based semiconductor technology

-   Atomic-scale origins of magnetism at the nanoscale

-   Role of individual dopants and point defects in solid-state lighting
    materials, such as GaN

-   Direct comparison of theory and experiment at the nanoscale, through
    the determination of the three-dimensional atomic-scale structure of
    nanostructures

-   Atomic-scale mechanisms of controlled chemical processes/catalysis

-   Size effects on thermodynamic properties of nanostructures

-   Role of oxygen in high-temperature superconductivity

-   Atomic-scale mechanisms of oxidation and corrosion

-   Direct high-resolution imaging of biological materials and of the
    interface between hard and soft materials

These challenges provide scientific drivers for the TEAM project. While
fulfilling all of these is not expected, the desired outcome for TEAM is
to address a number of these grand challenges in full or in part.

**Funding Summary:**

Dollars in Thousands

[FY 2005]{.underline} [FY 2006]{.underline} [FY 2007
Request]{.underline}

TEAM Major Item of Equipment 5,586 6,206 5,508

**Projected Evolution:**

As for any instrumentation or construction effort of this magnitude, the
TEAM project is managed in accordance with DOE Order 413.3, Project
Management for the Acquisition of Capital Assets, which sets out
procedures and major milestones in the form of critical decisions (CDs).
Mission Need (CD-0) for the TEAM project was approved in June 2004;
approval of the formal Acquisition Strategy and of CD-1 (Alternative
Selection and Cost Range) followed in October 2005. The microscope will
be designed and built on a phased schedule. An initial instrument
incorporating spherical aberration correction, as well as a novel
electron gun and sample chamber arrangement, is expected to be available
to users in 2008. The final instrument will incorporate a more advanced
corrector under development (addressing both spherical and chromatic
aberration) and is to be commissioned and made available to users in
2009.