Quantitative electron phase imaging with high sensitivity and an unlimited field of view

As it passes through a sample, an electron beam scatters, producing an exit wavefront rich in information. A range of material properties, from electric and magnetic field strengths to specimen thickness, strain maps and mean inner potentials, can be extrapolated from its phase and mapped at the nanoscale. Unfortunately, the phase signal is not straightforward to obtain. It is most commonly measured using off-axis electron holography, but this is experimentally challenging, places constraints on the sample and has a limited field of view. Here we report an alternative method that avoids these limitations and is easily implemented on an unmodified transmission electron microscope (TEM) operating in the familiar selected area diffraction mode. We use ptychography, an imaging technique popular amongst the X-ray microscopy community; recent advances in reconstruction algorithms now reveal its potential as a tool for highly sensitive, quantitative electron phase imaging

Sheet-like chiro-optical material designs based C(Y) surfaces

A spatial structure for which mirror reflection cannot be represented by rotations and translations is chiral. For photonic crystals and metamaterials, chirality implies the possibility of circular dichroism, that is, that the propagation of left-circularly polarized light may differ from that of right-circularly polarized light. Here we draw attention to chiral sheet-or surface-like geometries based on chiral triply-periodic minimal surfaces. Specifically we analyse two photonic crystal designs based on the C(Y) minimal surface, by band structure analysis and by scattering matrix calculations of the reflection coefficient, for high-dielectric contrasts

X-ray ptychography

X-ray ptychographic microscopy combines the advantages of raster scanning X-ray microscopy with the more recently developed techniques of coherent diffraction imaging. It is limited neither by the fabricational challenges associated with X-ray optics nor by the requirements of isolated specimen preparation, and offers in principle wavelength-limited resolution, as well as stable access and solution to the phase problem. In this Review, we discuss the basic principles of X-ray ptychography and summarize the main milestones in the evolution of X-ray ptychographic microscopy and tomography over the past ten years, since its first demonstration with X-rays. We also highlight the potential for applications in the life and materials sciences, and discuss the latest advanced concepts and probable future developments