World’s most precise microscope coming to UVic

A new microscope that views the subatomic universe, being built for UVic by Hitachi High-Technologies to the design of Dr. Rodney Herring (mechanical engineering), is expected to arrive on campus in December. The Scanning Transmission Electron Holography Microscope (STEHM) will use an electron beam and holography techniques to observe materials at a resolution as small as one-fiftieth the size of an atom. It will give researchers in a wide variety of fields an unprecedented look into the subatomic universe. “It will take us from nanotechnology into picotechnology, as it is expected that we will be able to manipulate atomic particles,” says Dr. Elaine Humphrey of UVic’s Advanced Microscopy Facility.

More: National Post article; 2009 UVic media release; and UVic Advanced Microscopy Facility