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Electron Tomography of SPM Probes, Nanoparticles and Precipitates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Xiaojing Xu ,
Zineb Saghi ,
Guang Yang ,
Yong Peng ,
Beverley Inkson ,
Ralph Gay  and
Günter Möbus
Xiaojing Xu
Affiliation:
xj.xu@sheffield.ac.uk, University of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, United Kingdom
Zineb Saghi
Affiliation:
z.saghi@shef.ac.uk, University of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, United Kingdom
Guang Yang
Affiliation:
g.yang@shef.ac.uk, University of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, United Kingdom
Yong Peng
Affiliation:
y.peng@sheffield.ac.uk, University of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, United Kingdom
Beverley Inkson
Affiliation:
beverley.inkson@shef.ac.uk, University of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, United Kingdom
Ralph Gay
Affiliation:
r.gay@sheffield.ac.uk, University of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, United Kingdom
Günter Möbus
Affiliation:
g.moebus@sheffield.ac.uk, University of Sheffield, Dept Engineering Materials, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, United Kingdom
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Abstract

Nanoscale tomographic reconstructions from objects with diameters of 100nm or smaller can only be achieved non-destructively with transmission electron tomography. The application of this technique to W tips, which are common probes for scanning tunneling microscopy and nanoindentation, is demonstrated with emphasis on visualizing oxide layers and functionally attached nanoparticles. For the reconstruction of facetted free-standing catalyst nanoparticles, such as CeO2 octahedra, we propose a combination of energy-filtered (EF) and bright field (BF) TEM tomography to achieve high fidelity of the projection relationship via EFTEM, due to its incoherent imaging mode, and high resolution definition of the particle circumference from the edge-enhancement effects of the BF tomogram. Finally, electron tomography applications to CeO2 nanoprecipitates embedded in a multicomponent oxide glass matrix are shown, which comprises the first tomographic 3D reconstruction of a nanoscale dendrite.

Keywords

nanostructurenucleation & growthscanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 982: Symposium KK – Electron Microscopy Across Hard and Soft Materials , 2006 , 0982-KK02-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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References

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