Comptes Rendus Physique

J. Spencer Baskin

Ahmed H. Zewail

Seeing in 4D with electrons: Development of ultrafast electron microscopy at Caltech

Edward D. Boyes

Pratibha L. Gai

Visualising reacting single atoms under controlled conditions: Advances in atomic resolution <i>in situ</i> Environmental (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscopy (E(S)TEM)

Thierry Épicier

Étienne Snoeck

C. R. Physique 15 (2014) 276–280Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Comptes Rendus Physique
www.sciencedirect.com
Electron microscopy / Microscopie électronique
Networking strategies of the microscopy community
for improved utilization of advanced instruments:
(2) The national network for transmission electron microscopy
and atom probe studies in France (METSA)
Stratégies de mise en réseau élaborées par les communautés
de la microscopie électronique pour optimiser l’utilisation des nouvelles
plateformes instrumentales : (2) Le réseau français de microscopie
électronique et de sonde atomique (METSA)
Thierry Épicier a,b,∗, Étienne Snoeck c
a MATEIS, UMR CNRS 5510, INSA de Lyon, bâtiment Blaise-Pascal, 69621 Villeurbanne cedex, France
b IRCELYON, UMR CNRS 5256, 2, avenue Albert-Einstein, 69626 Villeurbanne cedex, France
c CEMES–CNRS, UPR CNRS 8011, 29, rue Jeanne-Marvig, 30155 Toulouse cedex, France
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Available online 28 January 2014
Keywords:
Electron microscopy
Atom probe
Collaborative research
Infrastructure
METSA
Networking
Mots-clés :
Microscopie électronique
Sonde atomique
Recherche en collaboration
Mise en réseau
Infrastructure
METSA
With the development, over the past ten years, of a new generation of electron microscopes
with advanced performance, incorporating aberration correctors, monochromators, more
sensitive detectors, and innovative specimen environments, quantitative measurements at
the subnanometer and, in certain cases, at the unique atom level, are now accessible.
However, an optimized use of these possibilities requires access to costly instruments and
support by specialized trained experts. For these reasons, a national network (METSA)
has been created in France with the support of CNRS and CEA in order to offer, in
centres with complementary equipment and expertise, an open access to an enlarged and
multidisciplinary community of academic and industrial users.
© 2014 Académie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
r é s u m é
Avec le développement, au cours de la décennie passée, d’une nouvelle génération de
microscopes électroniques aux performances améliorées, équipés de correcteurs d’aber-
rations, de monochromateurs, de détecteurs plus sensibles ou d’une gamme innovante
d’environnements autour de l’échantillon, les mesures quantitatives sont désormais
réalisables à l’échelle sub-nanométrique, voire à celle de l’atome individuel. Cependant,
l’utilisation optimale de ces possibilités requiert l’accès à des instruments coûteux et la
participation d’un personnel expert dédié. Pour ces raisons, un réseau national (METSA)
a été créé en France avec le soutien du CNRS et du CEA, pour offrir, dans des centres
disposant de l’équipement adapté et d’un personnel entraîné, un accès ouvert à une large
* Corresponding author at: MATEIS, UMR CNRS 5510, INSA de Lyon, bâtiment Blaise-Pascal, 69621 Villeurbanne cedex, France.
E-mail address: Thierry.Epicier@insa-lyon.fr (T. Épicier).1631-0705/$ – see front matter © 2014 Académie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crhy.2014.01.004
T. Épicier, É. Snoeck / C. R. Physique 15 (2014) 276–280 277communauté interdisciplinaire d’utilisateurs en provenance du monde académique aussi
bien qu’industriel.
© 2014 Académie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Since the pioneering work of Ruska and Knoll [1] in the 1930’s, Electron Microscopes (EMs) have regularly been im-
proved: more stable electronics, from thermo-ionic to field-emission guns, faster and more sensitive detectors, etc. A major
breakthrough appeared in the 1990’s when Rose first proposed a design to build a spherical aberration corrector [2] that
Haider built in 1995 with the CEOS Company [3]. This impressive development makes EMs unsurpassed tools for charac-
terizing condensed matter, providing spectroscopic and structural quantitative information down to atomic level. Although
these improvements lead permanently to better performance in terms of resolution, detection limits and sensitivity, ability
to measure and not simply observe, EMs became more and more complex instruments and therefore more and more expen-
sive. In addition, advanced EM techniques like: HR(S)TEM, EELS, Holography, cryo-microscopy, tomography etc. do require
more and more expertise.
These reasons have been a significant driving force for the creation in France of a national network to facilitate access
to advanced EM and to the required expertise in it, and therefore to promote advanced characterization of materials at the
nanoscale by microscopy techniques. In addition, such a network should naturally increase the synergy and collaborations in
the French community. According to the evident complementarities of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) with Field
Ion Microscopy (mainly its more recent developments as Atom Probes (AP)), these two techniques were associated in the
project since the beginning. In January 2009, the METSA network (Microscopie électronique en transmission et sonde atomique,
www.metsa.fr) was thus created by the CNRS and the CEA, with the support of the French Ministry for Research and Higher
Education.
Although not restricted to it, METSA is mostly appropriate for Materials Science, with application from Physics, Nan-
otechnology to Engineering through Chemistry, Earth and Environment Sciences with interactions with Life Sciences. The
network initially associated seven main microscopy centres or platforms, and it grew to eight centres (but ten laboratories)
in 2013. The current METSA partners are listed in Table 1, together with their main expertise areas, which are further briefly
illustrated in Fig. 1.
The status of METSA evolved in 2012 from an Emergent Program to a CNRS Research Federation (FR 3507) [4]).
Role and organisation of METSA
The main objectives of METSA can be summarized as follows:
– METSA aims at promoting the access to state-of-the-art and advanced means of TEM and AP by the French and inter-
national academic and industrial community, in the fields of condensed matter sciences (as indicated above), and in
complement to the use of conventional laboratory tools.
– METSA provides a mean to support scientific developments, possibly in both instrumentation and methodology, with a
link towards the international community.1
– METSA intends to play a role in the organisation of the French community in terms of teaching, training and advice
if considered as useful by the governmental institutions, regarding the needs and prospects in the field of advanced
microscopy.
Table 1
Members of the METSA Research Federation FR CNRS 3507.
Platforms Location Expertise
CEMES, UPR 8011 Toulouse Cs-corrected HRTEM, EELS, in situ, holography
IM2NPa, UMR 6242 Marseilles Atom Probe (Tomography), Cs-corrected HRTEM
CiNaMa, UMR 3118 Marseilles Environmental TEM
MATEISb-CLYM, UMR 5510 Lyons All purposes TEM, Environmental EM
PFNC-Minatec (CEA) Grenoble Cs-corrected HRTEM – HRSTEM, EELS
LPS, UMR 8502 Orsay Cs-corrected HRSTEM, STEM-EELS
MPQ, UMR 7162 Paris Cs-corrected HRTEM, EELS
CRISMATc, UMR 6508 Caen Quantitative Electron Diffraction, heating/cooling
GPMc, UMR 6634 Rouen Atom Probe (Tomography), Field Ion Microscopy
IPCMS, UMR 7504 Strasbourg TEM tomography, EFTEM, Cs-corrected HRSTEM
a Partners of the CIME-PACA platform.
b MATEIS laboratory is the main of the 13 partners of the FED CLYM.
c Members of the IRMA CNRS Federation (FR 3095).
1 2 METSA platforms are members of the ESTEEM/ESTEEM2 project (see the specific contribution in the present special issue).
278 T. Épicier, É. Snoeck / C. R. Physique 15 (2014) 276–280Fig. 1. (Colour online.) Illustration of the expertise of the METSA members: a): holography and Lorentz EM study of the magnetic configuration in 30-nm
Fe nanocubes (CEMES) [5]; b) APT study of the segregation of Pt at the NiSi2 grain-boundaries in a Ni silicide alloyed with Pt (IM2NP) [6]; c): evolution
of morphology of Pt nanoparticles under gas environment followed by in situ TEM (CINAM) [7]; d): EELS and in situ TEM compressive measurements of
transition alumina nanoparticles (CLYM) [8]; e): STEM-EELS imaging of CoPt catalysts; Co and Pt maps shown on the left are respectively for the same fresh
(top) and aged (bottom) nanoparticle (PFNC) [9]; f): CoPt nanoparticles deposited on a carbon film: detection of individual Co and Pt atoms by Cs-corrected
HRTEM (MPQ) [10]. g): atomic STEM-EELS study of a BaTiO3–Fe tunnel junction (LPS) [11]; h): 3D analysis of the crystallography of K–Ta–Nb–O tetragonal
tungsten bronze nanorods by precession electron diffraction (CRISMAT) [12]; i): APT and 3D field ion microscopy analysis of atomic NbN platelets in ferrite
(GPM) [13]; j): TEM nano-tomography of a alumino-silicate zeolite (IPCMS) [14]. (Continued on next page.)
According to these goals, METSA has provided the access to more than 500 researchers for 392 projects over more
than 480 deposited, representing 1400 days during the five years of existence of the network. These experiments were
initiated in a great majority by French teams, but a dozen of projects were also proposed by international groups as well.
The origin of the demands for METSA experiments is illustrated in Fig. 2; interestingly, it shows that physics, chemistry
and engineering applications are the three main and roughly equivalent areas for which the access to advanced METSA
instruments is requested.
More facts and features
The eight METSA platforms offer an access to three atom probes and 17 electron microscopes, mainly aberration-
corrected TEMs, but also one dedicated environmental SEM and 3 double-column SEM–FIB. Some of these instruments are
among the most advanced generations, i.e. the aberration corrected Nion Ultra-STEM 200 kV in LPS Orsay, the cold-FEG JEOL
ARM in MPQ Paris, the double-Cs corrected and monochromated FEI TITAN ‘Ultimate’ in PFNC-CEA Grenoble, the cold-FEG
HITACHI HF3300C 300 kV in CEMES Toulouse, the laser Flextap CAMECA Atom Probe in Rouen, and soon the Cs-corrected
Environmental TITAN ETEM 300 kV in CLYM Lyon-Villeurbanne.
T. Épicier, É. Snoeck / C. R. Physique 15 (2014) 276–280 279Fig. 1. (continued)
Fig. 2. (Colour online.) Scientific repartition of METSA experiments since 2009.
All these instruments have contributed to the experiments conducted so far, which have led to more than 50 published
papers and about twice communications to international meetings and conferences, as well as significant contributions to
more than 10 theses. In addition to the direct support to research through taking care of scientific experiments, METSA aims
at participating to training actions at the French and European levels; as first initiatives, METSA has supported the second
edition of the QEM (Quantitative Electron Microscopy) international school2 in 2009, and more recently the training courses
on electron tomography organized in Strasbourg in 20123 in relation with the French Society for Microscopies (SFμ).4
Acknowledgements
METSA is supported by the Institute for Physics and Institute for Chemistry of the CNRS and the CEA. D. Mangelinck,
S. Giorgio, P. Bayle-Guillemaud, O. Stéphan, C. Ricolleau, D. Pelloquin, W. Lefèbvre, and O. Ersen are acknowledged for their
active role as representatives from the different METSA platforms.
References
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