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.