Researchers at Leti, a CEA Tech institute, recently developed an electron holography technique capable of imaging material structures with a spatial resolution of just one atom.

Electron holography, a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique, can be used to image a material's crystal lattice, delivering valuable insights into the material's electrostatic potential. Crystal lattices, which are determined by the chemical structure of the atoms that make them up, provide information about a material's properties. Previously, images obtained using electron holography contained too much noise to determine the role of a single atom in a material's structure. However, researchers at Leti recently developed a method that fills this gap.