US 12,072,304 B2
Systems and methods for performing serial electron diffraction nanocrystallography
R. J. Dwayne Miller, Mississauga (CA); Robert Bücker, Hamburg (DE); and Günther Kassier, Hamburg (DE)
Appl. No. 17/428,737
Filed by R. J. Dwayne Miller, Mississauga (CA); Robert Bücker, Hamburg (DE); and Günther Kassier, Hamburg (DE)
PCT Filed Feb. 6, 2020, PCT No. PCT/CA2020/050154
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Aug. 5, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/160671, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 13, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/802,301, filed on Feb. 7, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0128493 A1, Apr. 28, 2022
Int. Cl. G01N 23/20058 (2018.01)
CPC G01N 23/20058 (2013.01) [G01N 2223/401 (2013.01)] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of performing serial electron crystallography, comprising:
scanning an electron nanobeam among a plurality of scan locations within a sample region, the sample region comprising a plurality of crystals, and employing a detector to detect, at each scan location, a signal associated with scattered electrons, thereby collecting an image dataset mapping the sample region;
processing the image dataset to identify crystals therein;
determining a set of scanning parameters suitable for scanning the electron nanobeam among a respective set of crystal locations corresponding to at least a subset of the crystals identified in the image dataset;
employing the set of scanning parameters to serially scan a collimated electron nanobeam among the respective set of crystal locations and employing a camera to collect at least one diffraction pattern at each of the crystal locations; and
processing electron diffraction patterns obtained from at least a subset of the crystal locations to calculate a crystal structure of the crystals.