A cheap and quickly adaptable in situ electrical contacting TEM sample holder design

• A TEM sample holder design with 4+1 electrical terminals is presented.
• It features a detachable sample support plate cheap to produce in larger quantities.
• The whole holder is manufacturable in an average metal workshop.
• The holder allows for in situ atomic resolution aberration corrected imaging at low voltages.

In situ electrical characterization of nanostructures inside a transmission electron microscope provides crucial insight into the mechanisms of functioning micro- and nano-electronic devices. For such in situ investigations specialized sample holders are necessary. A simple and affordable but flexible design is important, especially, when sample geometries change, a holder should be adaptable with minimum effort. Atomic resolution imaging is standard nowadays, so a sample holder must ensure this capability. A sample holder design for on-chip samples is presented that fulfils these requisites. On-chip sample devices have the advantage that they can be manufactured via standard fabrication routes.