High spatial resolution imaging and spectroscopy in nanostructures

Abstract

The challenge during the characterization of nanostructures is in extracting consistent local and spatially varying information from the structure and correlating it to the new physics that appears at the nanoscale. Recent years have seen exciting advances in imaging and spectroscopy techniques that can achieve this goal. The techniques offer the possibility to directly investigate local properties of materials with sub-nanometre spatial resolution. In this paper we review, from the perspective of our own contributions to the field of carbon nanostructures, recent advances in the application of nanoanalysis. Complementary techniques of spatially resolved electron, and scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, can be used to characterize and correlate the structure, topology, chemistry and electronic properties of nanostructures. Often the interpretation of the data needs to come from comparison with adequate theoretical models.