Foreword to the special issue low-voltage electron microscopy

Abstract

Today, low voltage electron microscopy is a topic of high relevance all over the world; in Japan [1], America [2], and Germany [3] particular research projects are even dedicated to unravel the atomic and electronic structure of radiation sensitive matter with 60 kV electrons and below. It seems that research comes back to its voltage-routes of the early days of electron microscopy, when in 1933, the German engineer and later Nobel Laureate Ernst Ruska approached the German Research Foundation for support to develop an "Übermikroskop" with a 60 kV electron beam enabling the visualization of the structure of sub-micrometer objects such as viruses which cannot be imaged with the light microscope [4]. What happened since then? The dreams of Otto Scherzer [5] and of Richard Feynman [6] to realize atomic-resolution electron microscopy has become true by the correction of the aberrations of the electron lenses [7], [8] and [9]. Today mankind benefits from a more detailed insight into the atomic and electronic structure of matter than ever before.