Detection of single atoms and buried defects in three dimensions by aberration-corrected electron microscope with 0.5-A information limit.
The ability of electron microscopes to analyze all the atoms in individual nanostructures is limited by lens aberrations. However, recent advances in aberration-correcting electron optics have led to greatly enhanced instrument performance and new techniques of electron microscopy. The development of an ultrastable electron microscope with aberration-correcting optics and a monochromated high-brightness source has significantly improved instrument resolution and contrast. In the present work, we report information transfer beyond 50 pm and show images of single gold atoms with a signal-to-noise ratio as large as 10. The instrument's new capabilities were exploited to detect a buried Sigma3 {112} grain boundary and observe the dynamic arrangements of single atoms and atom pairs with sub-angstrom resolution. These results mark an important step toward meeting the challenge of determining the three-dimensional atomic-scale structure of nanomaterials.
Kisielowski
C
C
National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Freitag
B
B
Bischoff
M
M
van Lin
H
H
Lazar
S
S
Knippels
G
G
Tiemeijer
P
P
van der Stam
M
M
von Harrach
S
S
Stekelenburg
M
M
Haider
M
M
Uhlemann
S
S
Müller
H
H
Hartel
P
P
Kabius
B
B
Miller
D
D
Petrov
I
I
Olson
E A
EA
Donchev
T
T
Kenik
E A
EA
Lupini
A R
AR
Bentley
J
J
Pennycook
S J
SJ
Anderson
I M
IM
Minor
A M
AM
Schmid
A K
AK
Duden
T
T
Radmilovic
V
V
Ramasse
Q M
QM
Watanabe
M
M
Erni
R
R
Stach
E A
EA
Denes
P
P
Dahmen
U
U