Ernst Ruska-Centre
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C) is an institute located on the campus of Forschungszentrum Jülich belonging to the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. It comprises three divisions: “Physics of Nanoscale systems”, “Materials Science and Technology” and “Structural Biology”.
The ER-C's main purposes are fundamental research in electron microscopy, focusing on method development and applications of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and scanning-transmission electron microscopy (STEM) in physics, chemistry and biology.
History
As a competence platform, the ER-C was founded on 27 January 2004 through a contract signed by the chairman of Forschungszentrum Jülich Joachim Treusch and the rector of RWTH Aachen University Burkhard Rauhut. It was inaugurated on 18 May 2006 in the presence of members of the Ernst Ruska family, as well as representatives of the international electron microscopy community. On 1 January 2017, the ER-C attained the status of an independent scientific institute in Forschungszentrum Jülich. The ER-C is presently expanding further within the framework of the Research Infrastructure Roadmap of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the designation ER-C 2.0. The ER-C thus creates incentives for companies dealing with novel materials and technologies to settle in the Rhenish mining area and contribute to the development of a competence region for innovative materials technologies and ultimately to the success of structural change.
Instrumental resources
The ER-C develops new methods and technologies in the field of electron microscopy, with a special focus on ultra-high-resolution techniques to study solid state materials, soft materials and biological systems. The ER-C houses conventional and state-of-the-art electron microscopes, ranging from standard scanning electron microscopes to highly-specialised aberration corrected instruments offering sub-Å resolution imaging and spectroscopy, as well as quantitative measurements of electromagnetic field distributions using phase contrast techniques that include off-axis electron holography and 4D STEM. The ER-C currently operates seven aberration-corrected instruments.
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