Albert Crewe Centre

About the centre

At the Albert Crewe Centre we are working to extend Albert Crewe’s legacy with a strategic focus on the development of new approaches to imaging atomic scale dynamics in SEM, STEM and FIB (focused ion beam). We focus on operando experiments and beam sensitive materials using integrated AI to design, implement and interpret atomic scale measurements.

A unique feature of the ACC is its primary focus on the use of in-situ and operando stages. Our research looks at developing new applications for gas/liquid/open cell experiments that push the limits of spatial and temporal resolution for dynamic processes across broad areas of science and technology. In addition, we are pursuing a science driven integration of key AI concepts into an optimal simultaneous acquisition and interpretation protocol for all our STEM methods.

The main thrust of this AI4STEM approach is a compressed sensing (CS)/AI framework that will permit a range of advanced quantitative multi-scale hyperspectral data to be obtained and reconstructed using orders of magnitude fewer pixels than in conventional methods, i.e. images will be obtained under extremely low dose and/or dose rate conditions with vastly accelerated framerates. This dose/speed/resolution optimisation creates wide-ranging new opportunities to avoid electron beam damage and is being used to obtain quantified atomic scale observations of metastable materials and processes.