Launch of a joint international laboratory between the CNRS and Hitachi High Technologies Corporation

French researchers and Japanese engineers have joined forces to develop a new electron microscope that can scan the properties of matter on very small scales of time and space. The Centre d'élaboration de matériaux et d'études structurales (CEMES) of the CNRS and the Hitachi High Technologies Corporation (HHT) will formalize the creation of a joint laboratory on July 2, 2018, the first between the CNRS and a foreign company. The relations between CEMES and HHT began in 2009, when the laboratory was seeking to acquire a new transmission electron microscope (TEM) that can conduct experiments that are impossible for conventional instruments. In order to better respond to the needs of researchers, HHT engineers modified one of their products and developed a truly novel “electron optical platform. The two partners built on this experience by pursuing their relations, initially through a collaboration agreement aiming to pursue the valorization of this instrument. At the same time, a CEMES team¹ developed a one-of-a-kind coherent² source of ultrafast electrons that they successfully tested on a previous generation HHT microscope, making this prototype the first ultrafast coherent TEM. With HHT engineers seeking to collaborate on this new technology and CEMES researchers to continue this research on a more modern microscope, the two partners subsequently decided to establish a joint laboratory, which will be confirmed by the signing of an agreement on July 2 at the French Embassy in Tokyo.