There’s no place like Chicago for a one-of-a-kind microscope

UIC purchased an electron microscope, shown with physics professor Robert Klie. The MONO-MARS can image superconductors and other materials at atomic scale without magnetic interference. Photos: Jenny Fontaine/UIC

For many, the cacophony of students, Chicago traffic and rumbling L train define UIC. But a new campus research facility is specifically designed for focus.

UIC has acquired an atomic-scale electron microscope from JEOL USA, Inc.; it's the first of its kind and capability in the world outside of a prototype in Tokyo. The instrument, which researchers within and outside of UIC can use for a fee, opens new possibilities for imaging superconductors and other materials without magnetic interference.

Robert Klie, a UIC physics professor, spearheaded the purchase in 2023 with a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation and $1.8 million from the UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Installation began in July 2025 in the Center for Structural Biology, which the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research renovated with $4.9 million.

Installation for the MONO-MARS began in July 2025. (Photos courtesy of the Nanoscale Physics group at UIC)

"The MONO-MARS represents a new frontier for electron microscopy," Klie said. "There is enormous potential to not only make scientific discoveries, but also train the next generation of students, scientists and engineers."

The MONO-MARS - or the Monochromated Magnetic field-free Atomic Resolution imaging System - is an electron microscope. Instead of light, it shoots beams of electrons at a sample. Based on how the electrons interact with the material - be it a tiny microchip, a quantum computing device, a sugar crystal or an insect wing - the researchers can create a high-resolution, atomic-scale image. Like shadow puppetry, the created image often tells a clearer, more meaningful story than the specimen itself.

Electron microscopes use magnetism to focus the electron beam, just like a light microscope uses a glass lens. But the MONO-MARS does not expose its specimens to a magnetic field. This introduces the possibility for making images of superconductors, which are metals that conduct energy most efficiently, and measuring infinitesimal energetic shifts in these materials.

The MONO-MARS might be used to image microchips, quantum computing devices, sugar crystals or insect wings. (Photo: Jenny Fontaine/UIC)

"Usually, if you place a superconductor in a high-magnetic field, its ability to conduct electricity is destroyed. With the MONO-MARS, we can begin to study them at the atomic level," Klie said.

Researchers might explore the benefits of replacing copper wiring with superconductors, using the microscope to see how miles-long, incredibly thin superconducting wires would ferry energy from point A to point B. Iron-containing biomaterials like artificial joints are also candidates for a closer look.

The MONO-MARS is monochromated, meaning it uses a single wavelength to create sharper, more detailed images. It's also aberration-free, or designed to maximize focus and minimize blur.

"Acquisition of the MONO-MARS instrument allows UIC to become a leading electron microscopy and imaging center in the U.S.," said UIC Vice Chancellor for Research Joanna Groden. "Its capacity will allow researchers to answer a myriad of new research questions and make important observations related to applied science."

Klie said his research team is developing a menu of techniques to make available for a fee to internal and external researchers. Campus leaders and UIC scientists will officially unveil the instrument at a private celebration Aug. 20.

Contact

Jenna Kurtzweil

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Categories

Research, University

Topics

electron microscopy, microscope, microscopy, quantum, superconductor