English

Ultra-Cold Cryogenic TEM with Liquid Helium and High Stability

Applied Physics 2025-09-10 v1

Abstract

Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy has revolutionized structural biology and materials science, but achieving temperatures below the boiling point of liquid nitrogen remains a long-standing aspiration. We introduce an ultra-cold liquid helium transmission electron microscope specimen holder, featuring continuous cryogen flow and vibration decoupling. This instrument is compatible with modern aberration-corrected microscopes and achieves sub-25 K base temperature, ±{\pm}2 mK thermal stability over many hours, and atomic resolution--setting the stage for a new era of cryogenic electron microscopy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.00636,
  title  = {Ultra-Cold Cryogenic TEM with Liquid Helium and High Stability},
  author = {Emily Rennich and Suk Hyun Sung and Nishkarsh Agarwal and Maya Gates and Robert Kerns and Robert Hovden and Ismail El Baggari},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.00636},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:34:35.590Z