Stereological analysis has been coupled with transmission electron microscope (TEM) orientation mapping to investigate the grain boundary character distribution in nanocrystalline copper thin films. The use of the nanosized (<5 nm) beam in the TEM for collecting spot diffraction patterns renders an order of magnitude improvement in spatial resolution compared to the analysis of electron backsca...

A method based on the sidewall transfer technique for fabricating two-dimensional (2D) nano-mold on a silicon substrate was developed. Instead of using expensive nanolithography, the authors fabricated 2D silicon nano-mold using standard ultraviolet lithography, conformal deposition of gold by radio frequency sputtering, argon sputter etching and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE). This technique...

This study evaluates an alternative to electron-beam lithography for fabricating nanoscale graphene devices. Dip-pen nanolithography is used for defining monolayer graphene flakes and for patterning of gold electrodes through writing of an alkylthiol on thin films of gold evaporated onto graphene flakes. A wet gold etching step was used to form the individual devices. The sheet resistances of t...

The high optical gain and absorption of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have attracted attention for photonic device applications. However, owing to the sensitivity of organic moieties to solvents and temperature, device processing is challenging, particularly for patterning. Here, we report the direct patterning of perovskites using chemically gas-assisted focused-ion beam (GAFIB) etching...

Whether and how fracture mechanics needs to be modified for small length scales and in systems of reduced dimensionality remains an open debate. Here, employing in situ transmission electron microscopy, atomic structures and dislocation dynamics in the crack tip zone of a propagating crack in two-dimensional (2D) monolayer MoS2 membrane are observed, and atom-to-atom displacement mapping is obt...

A compound optical system for coherent focusing and imaging at the nanoscale is reported, realised by high-gain fixed-curvature elliptical mirrors in combination with X-ray waveguide optics or different cleaning apertures. The key optical concepts are illustrated, as implemented at the Göttingen Instrument for Nano-Imaging with X-rays (GINIX), installed at the P10 coherence beamline of the PETR...

Holes with different sizes from microscale to nanoscale were directly fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) milling in this paper. Maximum aspect ratio of the fabricated holes can be 5:1 for the hole with large size with pure FIB milling, 10:1 for gas assistant etching, and 1:1 for the hole with size below 100 nm. A phenomenon of volume swell at the boundary of the hole was observed. The reason ...

We present a new nanoscale imaging technique based on detecting backscattered ions from a lithium focused ion beam (FIB). Scanning ion microscopes are of general interest as they provide image contrast that differs from scanning electron microscopes (SEM), as has been demonstrated with the traditional gallium FIB and the helium ion microscope [1]. Like helium, the low mass of lithium makes it i...

In this work, we utilise a combination of theory, computation and experiments to understand the early events related to the nucleation of Ag filaments on α-Ag2WO4 crystals, which is driven by an accelerated electron beam from an electron microscope under high vacuum. The growth process and the chemical composition and elemental distribution in these filaments were analysed in depth at the nanos...

Superresolution fluorescence microscopy of multiple fluorophores still requires development. Here we present simultaneous three-colour stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy relying on a single STED beam at 620 nm. Toggling the STED beam between two or more power levels ("multilevelSTED") optimizes resolution and contrast in all colour channels, which are intrinsically co-aligned and we...