Effects Associated with Nanostructure Fabrication Using In Situ Liquid Cell TEM Technology

Abstract

We studied silicon, carbon, and SiCx nanostructures fabricated using liquid-phase electron-beam-induced deposition technology in transmission electron microscopy systems. Nanodots obtained from fixed electron beam irradiation followed a universal size versus beam dose trend, with precursor concentrations from pure SiCl4 to 0 % SiCl4 in CH2Cl2, and electron beam intensity ranges of two orders of magnitude, showing good controllability of the deposition. Secondary electrons contributed to the determination of the lateral sizes of the nanostructures, while the primary beam appeared to have an effect in reducing the vertical growth rate. These results can be used to generate donut-shaped nanostructures. Using a scanning electron beam, line structures with both branched and unbranched morphologies were also obtained. The liquid-phase electron-beam-induced deposition technology is shown to be an effective tool for advanced nanostructured material generation.

Characterization of Nanomaterials Using In Situ Liquid-Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy: A Review

“…144 To induce Al nanoparticles, they used a focused electron beam in TEM to successfully image the movement process in the liquid cell. To make the trajectory of nanoparticles more controllable, the movement of gold nanoparticles was accurately located using a fast electron beam in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) by Batson et al 145,190 Since then, Zheng et al, 146,147 Bresin et al, 135 Chen et al 148 (see Figure 14), Chen et al, 149 Tripathi et al, 150 and Yang et al 72 successively used electron-beam-induced deposition to systematically study the movement of gold, silicon, and other metal compounds in the liquid cell. Their experiments have shown great application prospects for in situ liquid-cell TEM in the field of micro/nanoelectronic fabrication.…”

“…With the rapid advancement of liquid-cell technology, many phenomena and reactions of nanostructures and biomaterials can be observed and studied in situ by using liquid-phase TEM. In situ liquid-cell TEM is mainly applied in the characterization of nanostructures, ,,,,,,,− electrochemical research for batteries, ,− and life science research. ,,,− …”