Seeing atoms with aberration-corrected sub-Ångström electron microscopy

The Relevance of Building an Appropriate Environment around an Atomic Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope as Prerequisite for Reliable Quantitative Experiments: It Should Be Obvious, but It Is a Subtle Never-Ending Story!

The realization of electron microscopy facilities all over the world has experienced a paramount increase in the last decades. This means huge investments of public and private money due to the high costs of equipment, but also for maintenance and running costs. The proper design of a transmission electron microscopy facility is mandatory to fully use the advanced performances of modern equipment, capable of atomic resolution imaging and spectroscopies, and it is a prerequisite to conceive new methodologies for future advances of the knowledge. Nonetheless, even today, in too many cases around the world, the realization of the environment hosting the equipment is not appropriate and negatively influences the scientific quality of the results during the life of the infrastructure, practically vanishing the investment made. In this study, the key issues related to the realization of an advanced electron microscopy infrastructure are analyzed based on personal experience of more than thirty years, and on the literature.

Deep Learning Segmentation of Complex Features in Atomic-Resolution Phase-Contrast Transmission Electron Microscopy Images

Phase-contrast transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful tool for imaging the local atomic structure of materials. TEM has been used heavily in studies of defect structures of two-dimensional materials such as monolayer graphene due to its high dose efficiency. However, phase-contrast imaging can produce complex nonlinear contrast, even for weakly scattering samples. It is, therefore, difficult to develop fully automated analysis routines for phase-contrast TEM studies using conventional image processing tools. For automated analysis of large sample regions of graphene, one of the key problems is segmentation between the structure of interest and unwanted structures such as surface contaminant layers. In this study, we compare the performance of a conventional Bragg filtering method with a deep learning routine based on the U-Net architecture. We show that the deep learning method is more general, simpler to apply in practice, and produces more accurate and robust results than the conventional algorithm. We provide easily adaptable source code for all results in this paper and discuss potential applications for deep learning in fully automated TEM image analysis.

Perspective: 4D ultrafast electron microscopy--Evolutions and revolutions

In this Perspective, the evolutionary and revolutionary developments of ultrafast electron imaging are overviewed with focus on the "single-electron concept" for probing methodology. From the first electron microscope of Knoll and Ruska [Z. Phys. 78, 318 (1932)], constructed in the 1930s, to aberration-corrected instruments and on, to four-dimensional ultrafast electron microscopy (4D UEM), the developments over eight decades have transformed humans' scope of visualization. The changes in the length and time scales involved are unimaginable, beginning with the micrometer and second domains, and now reaching the space and time dimensions of atoms in matter. With these advances, it has become possible to follow the elementary structural dynamics as it unfolds in real time and to provide the means for visualizing materials behavior and biological functions. The aim is to understand emergent phenomena in complex systems, and 4D UEM is now central for the visualization of elementary processes involved, as illustrated here with examples from past achievements and future outlook.

Interfacial atomic structure analysis at sub-angstrom resolution using aberration-corrected STEM

The atomic structure of a SiGe/Si epitaxial interface grown via molecular beam epitaxy on a single crystal silicon substrate was investigated using an aberration-corrected scanning transmittance electron microscope equipped with a high-angle annular dark-field detector and an energy-dispersive spectrometer. The accuracy required for compensation of the various residual aberration coefficients to achieve sub-angstrom resolution with the electron optics system was also evaluated. It was found that the interfacial layer was composed of a silicon single crystal, connected coherently to epitaxial SiGe nanolaminates. In addition, the distance between the dumbbell structures of the Si and Ge atoms was approximately 0.136 nm at the SiGe/Si interface in the [110] orientation. The corresponding fast Fourier transform exhibited a sub-angstrom scale point resolution of 0.78 Å. Furthermore, the relative positions of the atoms in the chemical composition line scan signals could be directly interpreted from the corresponding incoherent high-angle annular dark-field image.

A graphene oxide-carbon nanotube grid for high-resolution transmission electron microscopy of nanomaterials

A novel grid for use in transmission electron microscopy is developed. The supporting film of the grid is composed of thin graphene oxide films overlying a super-aligned carbon nanotube network. The composite film combines the advantages of graphene oxide and carbon nanotube networks and has the following properties: it is ultra-thin, it has a large flat and smooth effective supporting area with a homogeneous amorphous appearance, high stability, and good conductivity. The graphene oxide-carbon nanotube grid has a distinct advantage when characterizing the fine structure of a mass of nanomaterials over conventional amorphous carbon grids. Clear high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images of various nanomaterials are obtained easily using the new grids.

4D imaging of transient structures and morphologies in ultrafast electron microscopy

With advances in spatial resolution reaching the atomic scale, two-dimensional (2D) and 3D imaging in electron microscopy has become an essential methodology in various fields of study. Here, we report 4D imaging, with in situ spatiotemporal resolutions, in ultrafast electron microscopy (UEM). The ability to capture selected-area-image dynamics with pixel resolution and to control the time separation between pulses for temporal cooling of the specimen made possible studies of fleeting structures and morphologies. We demonstrate the potential for applications with two examples, gold and graphite. For gold, after thermally induced stress, we determined the atomic structural expansion, the nonthermal lattice temperature, and the ultrafast transients of warping/bulging. In contrast, in graphite, striking coherent transients of the structure were observed in both image and diffraction, directly measuring, on the nanoscale, the longitudinal resonance period governed by Young's elastic modulus. The success of these studies demonstrates the promise of UEM in real-space imaging of dynamics.