Second Sino-German Symposium on Advanced Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy in Materials Science, 12–16 October 2017, Xi’an, China

The second Sino-German Symposium on Advanced Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy in Materials Science was held in Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China. The four day symposium was organised by Rafal Dunin-Borkowski from the Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons in Forschungszentrum Jülich, Wolfgang Jäger from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel as well as Chunlin Jia and Zhiwei Shan from the School of Materials Science and Engineering in Xi’an Jiaotong University.

The event attracted more than 90 participants from more than 25 research institutes and universities, including more than 50 students and young scholars. During 12 scientific sessions that comprised more than 40 presentations given by invited experts from China, Germany, Denmark, Australia and the United States, the participants discussed current developments and challenges in advanced and in situ electron microscopy and spectroscopy, including aberration-corrected electron microscopy, in situ characterisation methods, correlative methods, and their applications to current and future materials science problems and to the processing of materials for the future development of materials and devices. 

A wide spectrum of methodological and materials research topics was covered, including (1) novel instrumentation and imaging and spectroscopic methods in aberration-corrected high-resolution and scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and related novel developments, such as electron ptychography and electron wavefront engineering, (2) advances in high-resolution and scanning TEM and in simulations of atomically-resolved elemental maps, (3) advances in electron spectroscopy and spectrum imaging for probing plasmonic properties of nanomaterials, the electronic structure of interfaces, and magnetic circular dichroism, (4) imaging of fields using differential phase contrast imaging and quantitative off-axis holography for the characterization of the electrical and magnetic properties of materials and devices, (5) in situ and environmental transmission electron microscopy, involving nanometre-scale investigations of materials, reactions and processes at different temperatures in gases and liquids, and the development of novel methods and instrumentation for the in situ manipulation and measurement of nanomaterials, (6) novel developments in oxides and ferroics, (7) applications of electron microscopy and spectroscopy and correlative scanning TEM-atom probe tomography to advanced materials research on structural and functional materials, including two-dimensional materials, soft materials, materials for applications in bioscience, materials for hydrogen storage, materials for solar cells, catalytic materials, nanostructured and nanoporous functional materials, devices, metallic alloys, composite materials, and structural materials for industrial engineering. 

The symposium presented insights into many current research areas related to materials for energy technology, nanotechnology, future nanoelectronics, transport, product development, and the environment. The novel developments in instrumentation and materials that were presented documented the impressive progress that has been made possible by applying aberration-corrected electron microscopy to the characterisation and understanding of novel materials and devices and their properties. It was shown that correlative approaches that involve the application of different characterisation techniques to the same problem and the use of in situ and environmental transmission electron microscopy can be used to provide an improved understanding of the fundamental properties of structures and mechanisms and of reactions in materials and on surfaces on the atomic and molecular scale.

This outstanding and well attended symposium reflected the large interest in these research areas and provided valuable opportunities to establish collaborations through academic student exchange and scholarship programmes, collaborative projects, international workshops and teaching, which will accelerate research collaborations between Germany and China in the fields of electron microscopy and materials science. It also provided a forum for discussions between sponsoring companies and the conference participants. The next workshop in the series is planned to be held in Beijing in 2018.

The detailed programme of the symposium is available here.

The organisers are grateful for generous financial support from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Hitachi High Technologies, DENSSolutions, Nanomegas, CEOS, Leica and LOT Quantum Design.