About SALVE I-II

Ulm University ’s Sub-Angstrom Low-Voltage Electron Microscopy (SALVE) I-II project is a national collaboration with one goal in mind: making it possible to study radiation-sensitive materials at ultra-high-resolution by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). SALVE I-II partners include Carl ZEISS NTS and CEOS GmbH, as well as associated researchers at the Universities of Heidelberg and Oxford. The project is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) of Baden-Württemberg. As part of its commitment to the advancement of electron microscopy, ZEISS has endowed a chaired professorship for electron optics at Ulm University and established a senior professorship for the leading expert in this field, Harald Rose.

Already in the early days of electron microscopy, attempts were made to visualize biological samples with high contrast in a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) operating at voltages as low as 6 kV [1]. The performance of the microscope was very poor due to the large chromatic aberration which prevented sufficient resolution. The recent advances in the design of suitable aberration correctors by Harald H. Rose [2] allowed the revival of low-voltage electron microscopy [4, 5].

The realization of aberration correction at medium voltages by Haider (CEOS GmbH), Rose and Urban et. al. [3] is an impressive example of the practical application of a theoretical concept dating back to Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951) and Otto Scherzer (1909-1982). Aberration correction has greatly enhanced the resolution of the TEM. Harald Rose followed herewith the era of some of the most important researchers in microscopy world-wide. The accomplishments continue the string in early microscopy initiated by Ernst Abbe (1840-1905) and the microscope manufacturer Carl Zeiss (1816-1881), and furthered by Ernst Ruska (1906-1988), and Otto Scherzer (1909-1982). With the opportunity to bring Electron Optics back to the German University community in the person of the Carl ZEISS endowed professor at Ulm University , a productive German tradition might be continued.

1. Wilska A. P., 1964: Low voltage electron microscopy, a 6kV instrument. J. Royal Microsc. Soc., 83:207-211
2. Rose, H. , 1990: Outline of a spherically corrected semiaplanatic medium-voltage transmission electron microscope. Optik, 85:19-24
3. Haider M., H. Rose, S. Uhlemann, E. Schwan, B. Kabius, K. Urban, 1998: A spherical-aberration-corrected 200 kV transmission electron microscope. Ultramicroscopy, 75:53-60, doi: 10.1016/S0304-3991(98)00048-5
4. Kaiser, U. A., 2007: Some Prospects of Transmission Electron Microscopy in Materials Science, Extended abstract of a paper presented at MC 2007, 33rd DGE Conference in Saarbrücken, Germany, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 13:338-339, doi: 10.1017/S143192760708169X
   Kaiser, U. A., Chuvilin A., Meyer J., Biskupek J., 2009: Microscopy at the bottom. in: W. Grogger, F. Hofer, P. Poelt (Eds.), Materials Science Microscopy Conference MC2009, 3:1-6, doi: 10.3217/978-3-85125-062-6-379
5. Rose, H. , 2007: Criteria and Prospects for Realizing Optimum Electron Microscopes, Extended abstract of a paper presented at MC 2007, 33rd DGE Conference in Saarbrücken, Germany, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 13: 134-135, doi: 10.1017/S1431927607071358
   Rose, H., 2009: Future trends in aberration-corrected electron microscopy. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 367: 3809-3823, doi: 10.1098/rsta.2009.0062

Click icons in map and links in cases for information; Group of Electron Microscopy of Materials Science (EMMS), Central Facility of Electron Microscopy, Ulm University , Carl ZEISS NTS, CEOS Electron Optics GmbH (click icons in map for more information).

Figure 1: The SALVE I-II international partner sites map.

Figure 2: The SALVE I-II partner sites in Baden Württemberg, Germany.

Figure 3: Distances between SALVE I-II partner sites in Baden Württemberg.