CLYM presentation

The "Consortium Lyon Saint-Etienne de Microscopie" (CLYM, FED 4092) is a federative structure created in 1998 to have a pool of advanced microscopes, essentially electron microscopes, in order to finely characterize materials microstructures, from the micron scale to the atomic level. The application fields mainly belong to chemistry, physics, engineering and nanotechnologies. Among the machines hosted by CLYM, "environmental" microscopes allow in situ studies of materials behaviors under conditions mimicking their real use (operando microscopy).  For that reason, CLYM is one of the platforms of the national network METSA.

In this context, its first mission is to manage microscopes that are partially or totally shared, so that its members can develop research activities related to materials microstructural characterization. The machines managed directly by CLYM are located:

• At INSA Lyon, in premises close to those of the MATEIS laboratory,
• At CNRS, within the premises of the IRCELYON laboratory,
• At Jean-Monnet University in Saint-Étienne, within the premises of the Hubert Curien laboratory.

In addition, some microscopes belonging to CLYM partners are open to the CLYM community for part of their time.

For CLYM partners, the microscopes can be used either in an autonomous manner after training, or in cooperation and under assistance of advanced users. For non-CLYM partners (laboratories or companies), experiments may be performed upon request (contact@clym.fr).

The expertise of CLYM in terms of materials characterization can also be found within the trainings delivered via CNRS Formations-Entreprises.