CEMAS team contributes to MRS Bulletin
Did you pick up the December edition of MRS Bulletin? We hope you did. 
CEMAS Director David McComb served as a guest editor for the publication and authored a pair of articles. One of which was co-authored by Robert Williams, the assistant director for research and development at CEMAS.
MRS Bulletin is one of the most widely recognized and highly respected publications in advanced materials research. Each month, the Bulletin provides a comprehensive overview of a specific materials theme, along with industry and policy developments, and MRS and materials-community news and events.
Cryogenic electron microscopy in materials science was the theme of the December issue.
The following represents an overview of the articles authored by the CEMAS team:
Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy for materials research
David W. McComb, Jeffrey Lengyel, C. Barry Carter
Abstract:
Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy is simply transmission electron microscopy conducted on specimens that are cooled in the microscope. The target temperature of the specimen might range from just below ambient temperature to less than 4 K. In general, as the temperature decreases, cost increases, especially below –77°C when liquid He is required. We have two reasons for wanting to cool the specimen—improving stability of the material or observing a material whose properties change at lower temperatures. Both types of study have a long history. The cause of excitement in this field today is that we have a perfect storm of research activity—electron microscopes are almost stable with minimal drift (we can correct what drift there is), we can prepare specimens from the bulk or build them up, we have spherical-aberration-corrected lenses and monochromated beams, we have direct-electron-detector cameras, and computers are becoming powerful enough to handle all the data we produce.
Cryo-electron microscopy instrumentation and techniques for life sciences and material science
Robert E.A. Williams, David W. McComb, Sriram Subramaniam
Abstract:
In this article, we review some of the recent developments in instrumentation and methods that have led to the rise of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) in the life sciences community, and consider how researchers in the materials community might benefit from these advances. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is compared with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) for cryogenic imaging in both biological and materials science applications. We discuss the developments in detector technologies that have in part powered the development of cryo-EM and anticipate exciting areas for productive overlap between life science and materials science cryo-EM applications.
Review additional articles highlighted in the December 2019 edition of MRS Bulletin.