2010.01.15 | Dr. Bernhard Schaffer wins second Nion User Feedback Contest

Thanks to all of our users for helping us to improve our microscopes with continued feedback and suggestions during the year. We are please to announce that Bernhard Schaffer, of Daresbury, has won the 2009 Nion User feedback contest. He is shown on the left with his engraved iPod in front of the UltraSTEM 100 at the lab.

2009.06.03 | 10-year anniversary of a key aberration-corrected STEM paper

Ten years have elapsed this June since the 1999 publication of a paper entitled "Towards sub-Å electron beams", which described the first working STEM aberration corrector (Krivanek, Dellby and Lupini, Ultramicroscopy 78 (1999) 1-11). Back then, the goal of sub-Å resolution STEM seemed almost overly ambitious. Today, sub-Å electron probes are commonplace in aberration-corrected STEMs around the world and new ambitious goals have emerged: sub-Å resolution at primary voltages as low as 30 kV, and meV-level energy resolution EELS.

2009.05.29 | Nion Users Meeting

Nion UltraSTEM users and Nion staff met in scenic Banff, Canada on May 23, 2009 for a Nion users' meeting. The meeting followed the very successful EDGE conference and was attended by representatives from all the Nion microscope labs and the core of the Nion R&D team.

Nion users demonstrated results from their microscopes and provided valuable feedback to the Nion team for improving its products. The users also shared tips and tricks for getting the best results from Nion microscopes and forged future collaborations. Nion demonstrated upcoming designs and developments, and discussed some of the finer points of getting the best out if its dedicated STEMs.

There is a clear need for an online forum for continuing the stimulating discussions started at the meeting, to promote future dialogue about Nion instruments and their scientific capabilities, and to serve as a resource for providing feedback and troubleshooting advice. If you are a Nion user, please join this exciting new community and share your perspectives and experiences: Nion Users Group.

2009.01.16 | Dr. Michael Walls of CNRS Orsay wins Nion User Feedback Contest

Making a great electron microscope even better is a collective effort, made possible by the feedback we receive from the users of Nion microscopes. To encourage the feedback, at the beginning of each new year, Nion gives an award to the author of the most relevant and useful user feedback. The winner for 2008 was announced on January 16: Dr. Michael Walls of CNRS Orsay. He received an iPod touch and a message of congratulations. The picture shows him with his iPod, in front of the control center of the Orsay UltraSTEM.