Recent advances in electron-optics have given us the ability to generate and manipulate highly stable, phase coherent electron wavefields that can be brought to a focal point much smaller than an atom. This is enabling the exploration of fundamental phenomena in quantum physics, electron-optics and electron-atom interactions. It is also being applied to probe the atomic and electronic structure of matter with unprecedented spatial and energy resolution. In particular, electron scattering experiments can now be performed from small numbers of “important” atoms selected from within a specimen, offering powerful capabilities for determining the local structure and bonding of “nanostructured materials”.

This talk will give an overview of these developments, and will illustrate with various applications, including mapping surface plasmon polaritons in metallic nanostructures; revealing Li-dependent 3D octahedral superlattices in Li-ion conductors; structure-property relationships in semiconducting nanostructures; understanding crystal growth and shape control in metal nanoparticles; and ‘imaging’ the distribution of electrons as they scatter within an atomic lattice.

Prof Joanne Etheridge is the Director of the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy and Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Monash University. She obtained her degree in theoretical physics at the University of Melbourne and a PhD in applied physics at RMIT University. She then held appointments at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy and Newnham College, including a Rosalind Franklin Research Fellowship and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. She returned to Melbourne to join Monash University where she established the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy (MCEM). Her research interests are in the theory of electron scattering in solids and its application to the development of new methods for determining the atomic structure and defect structure of materials. This includes interests in the theory, interpretation and application of electron microscopy and diffraction using sub-Ångström electron beams. She also applies electron microscopy to the study of functional materials, including perovskite and nanoparticle systems.