Atomistic Visualization Research Articles

Atomistic Visualization of Mechanical Interaction in Gold Crystalline Boundaries by Time-Resolved High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy

The atomic processes in mechanical interaction were visualized by time-resolved high resolution transmission electron microscopy at a spatial resolution of 0.2 nm and a time resolution of 1/60 s. Nanometer-sized tips of gold were approached, contacted, bonded, deformed and fractured inside a 200 kV electron microscope using a piezo-driving specimen holder. The crystallographic boundary formed after the contact. A few layers near the surfaces and bonding boundaries were responsible for the approach, contact and bonding processes. Atomic scale mechanical tests, such as the friction test, compressing, tensile and shear deformation tests, were proposed. A new type of mechanical processing at one-atomic-layer resolution was demonstrated. Atomic scale contact or noncontact type surface scanning similar to that in atomic force microscopy was also performed with the gold tips.

Atomistic visualization of deformation in gold

Atomistic visualization of deformation was realized by dynamic high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Compression, tensile, and shear deformation in nanometer-sized gold was carried out at room temperature inside a 200-kV transmission electron microscope using a piezodriving specimen holder. The atomic process of the deformation was observed in situ at a spatial resolution of 0.2 nm and at a time resolution of $\frac{1}{60}$ s. It was shown that slip and twinning are attributed to the deformation and proceed at every atomic layer in dislocation-free nanometer-sized gold. A dislocationlike line defect is observed during the slip and twinning processes.

Atomistic visualization of epitaxial growth process using a new TEM specimen holder for vacuum-deposition

A side-entry-type specimen holder for a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) was developed for the atomistic visualization of the vapor-phase epitaxial growth process. Gold was vacuum-deposited on a (001) surface of a magnesium oxide substrate inside the HRTEM using the specimen holder. It was found that structural modification of a gold cluster and an interface can be observed corss-sectionally by time-resolved high-resolution transmission electron microscopy at a spatial resolution of 0.2 nm and a time resolution of 1 60 s .