5 Werkstofftechnik
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The phenomenon of expelling nanomaterial from microparticles of different materials, such as Au, WO3 or B2O3 under the influence of a convergent electron beam (CB) of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) was reviewed by Ignacio Gonzalez-Martinez [1]. Converging the e-beam in a TEM means that a high amount of energy enters the microparticle at a very local place and interact with the matter. Obviously, during the convergent beam protocol, no imaging with the electron beam is possible, but at the end, nanoparticles with different appearances lie down next to the microparticle while its size is reduced.
Hence, there is a blind spot in the observation, which we want to fill, as we want to help clarify the nature of the expelling phenomenon. One hypothesis that explains the phenomenon is the so-called damage (of the microparticle) induced by an electric field (DIEF). Within this theory, the material is ionized and expelled in form of ionic waves. Our aim is therefore to fabricate specimens with artificial microlandscapes, as schematically exemplified in figure 1a), using the focused ion beam (FIB) and micromanipulators, as experimental setups to follow the paths of the expelled material.
As a first step towards the fabrication of such specimen, we make experimental feasibility studies for each fabrication method, FIB structuring with Ga+ ion beam and micromanipulated microparticle deposition. Bridges (gray regions in Fig. 1) are created by milling a commercially available electron transparent membrane (silicon oxide or carbon) of a Cu-TEM grid. Platinum or carbon walls (blue features in Fig. 1) are built to stand on those bridges. Microparticles (yellow sphere in Fig. 1) of gold or other material are deposited in the center of the bridges.
Figure 2a) shows four square holes (black area) and between them the residual silicon oxide membrane bridges (dark grey). On top of the bridges, walls (light grey) are deposited. The width of the bridges is different, the walls overlap the holes as well as the distance between the walls is very small, so these and other parameters need to be optimized. Figure 2b) shows a square hole (black) with bridges (white) on the right side on top of a carbon membrane (grey). There are still some obstacles which needs to be eliminated. For instance, the deposition process of the walls is not reliable as visible at the wall on top where a hole arises instead of a wall.
These studies are still in progress and the results are further discussed in terms of the applicability for the DIEF experiment in the TEM.
Since the TEM has the capacity to observe the atomic structure of materials, in-situ TEM synthesis methods are uniquely suited to advance our fundamental understanding of the bottom-up dynamics that drive the formation of nanostructures. E-beam induced fragmentation (potentially identified as a manifestation of Coulomb explosion) and electron stimulated desorption (ESD) are phenomena that have received attention because they trigger chemical and physical reactions that can lead to the production of various nanostructures. Here we report a simple TEM protocol implemented on WO2.9 microparticles supported on thin amorphous carbon substrates. The method produces various nanostructures such as WC nanoparticles, WC supported films and others. Nevertheless, we focus on the gradual graphitization and gasification of the C substrate as it interacts with the material expelled from the WO2.9 microparticles. The progressive gasification transforms the substrate from amorphous C down to hybrid graphitic nanoribbons incorporating W nanoparticles. We think these observations open interesting possibilities for the synthesis of 2D nanomaterials in the TEM.