Electron Microscopy Group

Research Interest:
- Development/improvement of advanced transmission electron microscopy.
-- Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy (EELS).
-- Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) and Annular Dark-Field (ADF) imaging.

-- 4D-STEM and unsupervised machine learning.
-- Other various microscopy techniques.
- Microscopic characterization of advanced materials.
- - Ceramics; oxides, nitrides, strongly-correlated-electron materials.
- - Dielectric materials for semiconductor devices.

Methodologies： High-Voltage Transmission Electron Microscopy (HVTEM), High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), Convergent-Beam Electron Diffraction (CBED), Coherent Convergent-Beam Electron Diffraction, Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy, Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDXS), Energy-Filtering Transmission Electron Microscopy (EFTEM), Spatially-Resolved EELS, Fresnel Fringe Method, DV-X alpha, Chemical Lattice Imaging, Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM), Annular Dark-Field (ADF) imaging, 4D-STEM, unsupervised machine learning (clustering, nonnegative matrix factorization) etc.

Materials：MgO, Au cluster, SiO2/Si interface (bird's beak), Stainless steel (sensitization), metal multilayer (GMR), CoCr alloys for (longitudinal and perpendicular) magnetic recording, interlayer dielectrics (BPSG), DRAM, Gate-oxide (silicon dioxide), silicon oxynitride, interconnection in ULSI, high-k (dielectric constant) material, alumina, high-Tc superconductor cuprate (copper oxide), lithium manganite, high-pressure-synthesized Si3N4, boron nitride, BC2N, superlattice of perovskite oxides, strongly-correlated-electron manganite ((La,Sr)3Mn2O7, (Tb,Ba)MnO3), SiAlON, graphene, MoS2 etc.

Professional Experience:
- 1989 - 1999: Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd.
- 1999 - present : National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).

• - 2010 ~ 2020 Professor, Kyushu University - NIMS Joint Graduate School Program.
• - Intensive lectures on transmission electron microscopy at Nagoya University (2000, 2013) and Kyushu University (2004, 2007, 2020).
• - Tutorial instructor for the Japanese Society of Microscopy: Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), and scanning transmission electron microscopy (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).
  Awards:
  - 2009 MEXT Commendation

- 2008 Prize of Electron Microscopy Society of Japan (Setou prize).
- 2001 Japanese Society of Electron Microscopy, Young Scientist Award.
- 1997 Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Young Scientist Award.

Education:
- born in Shinjuku, Tokyo
- Kindergarten and elementary school, Kyoto
- Elementary school, Chiba
- Elementary school and junior high school, Shizuoka
- Shizuoka High School, Shizuoka
- Nagoya University, Nagoya
- Doctor of science, Tohoku University, Sendai

Home town:
- Hisayama-cho, Kasuya, Fukuoka, Japan