NanoMEGAS

NanoMEGAS is a Belgian company founded in 2004 by a team of scientists and experts in electron crystallography and catalysis. It is recognized as the first to commercialize a universal precession device for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), often described as a "spinning star," which enabled precession electron diffraction (PED) to become a widely used technique in materials characterization. The company develops and supplies instrumentation and software that allow researchers to obtain orientation, phase, strain, and 3D structural information from nanocrystalline and amorphous materials at the nanoscale. NanoMEGAS's product portfolio includes the ASTAR device, which uses TEM-based orientation and phase mapping based on precession electron diffraction patterns, and the TOPSPIN platform, a digital STEM and beam precession electron diffraction analytical framework. Other offerings include automated strain mapping solutions for TEM/STEM, 3D precession diffraction tomography (Micro ED), e-PDF software for analyzing amorphous materials via electron pair distribution function, and 4D-STEM electric and magnetic field mapping. These tools are designed to work with commercial TEMs ranging from 100 to 400 kV, both old and new models. The company's precession diffraction instrumentation is present in more than 180 laboratories worldwide, and its technology has been the subject of over 180 publications between 2004 and 2013. NanoMEGAS continues to advance 4D-STEM techniques, providing solutions for high-resolution mapping of local structural variations and electromagnetic fields. The company remains a specialist supplier in the electron microscopy market, with a focus on crystallography and materials science research.

NanoMEGAS was created in 2004 by a team of scientists and experts in the field of electron crystallography and catalysis. The company was the first to commercialize a universal precession device for TEM, known as a "spinning star," which enabled precession electron diffraction (PED). This development built on early work in electron crystallography dating back to the 1950s in Russia (Vainstein and Zvyagin et al.), J. Cowley at Arizona State University in the USA, and later in the 1990s by D. Dorset (Buffalo, USA) and J. Gjonnes (Oslo, Norway). The technique of precession electron diffraction was contemporaneously developed by Vincent and Midgley in Bristol, UK, in 1994. Following the commercialization of the precession device, the company's technology gained widespread adoption. By 2013, precession diffraction and electron crystallography applications were present at almost every major electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography scientific congress, with more than 180 publications from various laboratories worldwide between 2004 and 2013. Dedicated issues of major scientific microscopy journals featured the technology. NanoMEGAS's precession diffraction instrumentation is now present in more than 180 laboratories globally. The company has continued to innovate, developing the digital DigiSTAR precession unit, which can be adapted to commercial TEMs ranging from 100 to 400 kV, both old and new. This unit, combined with 3D diffraction tomography, allows for the solution of nanocrystal structures that are otherwise difficult to solve by conventional X-ray diffraction. The ASTAR device provides orientation and phase maps at 1–3 nm resolution for a variety of materials without special specimen preparation. NanoMEGAS also offers strain mapping at 2–4 nm resolution and has expanded into 4D-STEM techniques, including electric and magnetic field mapping and analysis of amorphous materials via e-PDF.

• 2013

  More than 180 publications (2004–2013) feature precession diffraction; instrumentation present in over 180 laboratories worldwide.

• 2004

  NanoMEGAS founded; commercializes first universal precession device for TEM.

Specialist supplier of precession electron diffraction instrumentation and software for TEM/STEM, enabling nanoscale crystallographic analysis.

• ASTAR

  TEM-based orientation/phase mapping device using precession electron diffraction patterns, characterizing materials down to 1 nm scale.

• TOPSPIN

  Digital STEM and beam precession electron diffraction analytical experimental framework offering a suite of beam precession imaging and advanced analytical experiments.

• DigiSTAR

  Digital precession unit adaptable to commercial TEMs (100–400 kV), enabling 3D diffraction tomography and crystal structure solution.

• e-PDF software

  Software using Electron Pair Distribution Function technique to analyze local atomic order in amorphous and nanocrystalline materials from electron diffraction data.

• Automated Strain Mapping Solution

  Novel automated strain mapping solution for TEM/STEM based on nanobeam precession diffraction patterns and STEM reference image acquisition, with precision up to 0.02% and spatial resolution < 2 nm.

• 3D Precession Diffraction Tomography (Micro ED)

  3D diffraction tomography in combination with DigiSTAR and precession diffraction device enables automatic reconstruction of reciprocal space, unit cell determination and crystal structure solution.

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