Atomic-scale chemical imaging of composition and bonding by aberration-corrected microscopy.
Using a fifth-order aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, which provides a factor of 100 increase in signal over an uncorrected instrument, we demonstrated two-dimensional elemental and valence-sensitive imaging at atomic resolution by means of electron energy-loss spectroscopy, with acquisition times of well under a minute (for a 4096-pixel image). Applying this method to the study of a La(0.7)Sr(0.3)MnO3/SrTiO3 multilayer, we found an asymmetry between the chemical intermixing on the manganese-titanium and lanthanum-strontium sublattices. The measured changes in the titanium bonding as the local environment changed allowed us to distinguish chemical interdiffusion from imaging artifacts.
Muller
D A
DA
Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. dm24@cornell.edu
Kourkoutis
L Fitting
LF
Murfitt
M
M
Song
J H
JH
Hwang
H Y
HY
Silcox
J
J
Dellby
N
N
Krivanek
O L
OL