Advanced In-Situ Electron Microscopy for Energy and Quantum Materials

In this presentation, I will give an overview of our recent work on advanced in-situ microscopy characterization of energy and quantum materials. I will focus on the correlation of electrons, spin and lattice and their degrees of freedom as well as the critical roles of heterogeneity, interfaces, and disorder under external electric, magnetic and photonic excitations to reveal materials’ response. For instance, I will show our cryogenic microscopy study of atomically resolved imaging and electron energy-loss spectroscopy to understand the interface-enhanced superconductivity and of Lorentz phase microscopy to explore the intriguing transformations among various topological chiral spin states including skyrmions under applied electromagnetic fields. Studying spin wave dynamics in nanoscale magnetic architecture under microwave excitation and Li-ion transport mechanisms of battery materials with ionic liquid in operando will also be presented.<br/>The author would like to acknowledge the electron microscopy group at CMPMS, BNL for assistance. The work was supported by the US DOE/BES-MSED under Contract DE-SC0012704.