Poised to become one of the world’s preeminent centers of excellence for interdisciplinary materials research, IMRI has two major goals: (1) To establish and maintain a world-class facility for the characterization and fabrication of materials and devices including biological substance and (2) to become a national center of excellence for materials research. IMRI’s facilities include several of the highest-performance TEMs available in the world today. For instance, IMRI is the world’s first research lab with a NION UltraSTEM 200 equipped with High Energy Resolution Monochromated EELS System (HERMES), which allows one to see single atoms, to measure the vibration of molecules and to probe phonons in crystal down to the atomic scale. Recently, we have demonstrated an energy resolution of 4.2 meV, which set a new record in the history of electron microscopy.

Through our open-access services, IMRI offers researchers from academia and the industry the opportunity to reveal the functional properties of materials. Our wide range of powerful and unique materials enable researchers to see atoms, to discover new materials, to design new molecules and compounds, to follow the motion of atoms, and to track chemical reaction in real-time with atomic resolution using the most advanced tools available today. Researchers are able to facilitate advances in fundamental research and new technologies across the scientific and engineering spectrum. IMRI’s facilities are professionally staffed, convenient, affordable, open 24/7, and user-friendly. Our highly skilled PhD-level technical staff members are responsible for training users, providing technical and scientific assistance, scheduling, building relationships with outside users, and supervising day-to-day operations.

In the 2019 fiscal year alone, IMRI facilities served 301 UCI users from 12 departments, 106 external academic users mostly from universities in Southern California including CSU campuses and 59 industrial users from 34 local companies. 290 UCI research projects with a total funding of $158 million have used IMRI facilities. Additionally, 275 UCI graduate students and 94 from other local universities used IMRI facilities for their thesis research. Moreover, 108 publications have acknowledged their use of IMRI facilities in peer-reviewed journals.

IMRI has played a crucial role in promoting UCI’s research strength. Recently, UCI was awarded $18 million for a new National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), which is built on UCI’s strengths in multidisciplinary science and engineering research, experiential learning, world-class facilities, and commitment to diversity.  Together with UCI research and our collaborating partners, we will unlock the potential of researchers from around the world and enhance our university’s ability to recruit top-level students and faculty members.

I invite you to visit our facilities and see all that we have to offer.

Xiaoqing Pan
Director