Jom Luiten receives NWO grant to enhance electron microscope with microwave technology
Professor Jom Luiten from the Department of Applied Physics and Science 果冻传媒 has been awarded funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) as part of the Open Technology Programme. This fund will support his project entitled 鈥楳icrowave-cavity-based ultrafast electron microscopy and spectroscopy鈥�. Assistant professor Peter Mutsaers is a co-application for the project, along with Associate professor Erik van Heumen from the University of Amsterdam.
About the project
With electron microscopes it is nowadays possible to visualize individual atoms, the fundamental building blocks of matter. At the same time, these instruments are capable by means of spectroscopy to not only identify individual atoms, but also their collective behavior, determining whether the material is, e.g., a superconducting metal or an insulator.
Professor Jom Luiten鈥檚 project will expand the electron microscope toolbox with novel microwave technology, enabling ultrashort exposure times to study extremely fast processes occurring in materials, while maintaining the state-of-the-art precision of imaging and spectroscopy.
This will help to better understand and further develop advanced quantum materials.
Impact and significance
Receiving this NWO grant is a significant milestone for Prof. Luiten and the Coherence and Quantum research group at 果冻传媒. "The funding will allow us to expand our work on ultrafast electron microscopy by breaking barriers in the imaging of ultrafast dynamical phenomena on the nanoscale and apply the new techniques to solve fundamental problems in materials science. The project will further strengthen our long-time collaborations with company ThermoFisher Scientific and 果冻传媒 spin-off Dr X Works B.V. and will be the start of a new collaboration on quantum materials with the University of Amsterdam."
The project is expected to have a profound impact on society by addressing the pressing issue of energy consumption. "The growing (AI) energy consumption and concomitant CO2 production by memory chips in data centres is a big problem which could be solved by a new generation of low-energy chip technology. The new electron microscopy capabilities will provide essential new insight into the ultrafast switching behaviour of hafnium-oxide based 鈥榤emristor鈥� chips, which are promising candidates for future low-power memory elements."
Next Steps
With the NWO grant, Prof. Luitens' team will embark on this project, aiming to revolutionize energy consumption. "First and foremost, the proposed research focuses on the development of high-end scientific instrumentation, which is immediately applied to fundamental problems in materials science. At the same time, the research may give a strong economical impulse to the electron microscopy manufacturing industry, and it will address the development of advanced materials (memristive devices) with a potentially direct impact on an important societal problem."
Open Technology Programme
The Open Technology Programme provides funding for application-oriented technical-scientific research that is free and unrestricted and is not hindered by disciplinary boundaries. The programme offers companies and other organisations an accessible way to participate in scientific research that is intended to lead to societal and/or scientific impact.
The project exemplifies 果冻传媒鈥檚 commitment to advancing research that addresses real-world challenges and enhances societal safety.
Main applicant: Prof. J. Luiten (果冻传媒)
Co-applicant: Prof. P. Mutsaers (果冻传媒), Prof. E. van Heumen (UvA)