Kavli Affiliate: Alex Zettl
| First 5 Authors: Philipp M Pelz, Sinead Griffin, Scott Stonemeyer, Derek Popple, Hannah Devyldere
| Summary:
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a potent technique for the
determination of three-dimensional atomic scale structure of samples in
structural biology and materials science. In structural biology,
three-dimensional structures of proteins are routinely determined using
phase-contrast single-particle cryo-electron microscopy from thousands of
identical proteins, and reconstructions have reached atomic resolution for
specific proteins. In materials science, three-dimensional atomic structures of
complex nanomaterials have been determined using a combination of annular dark
field (ADF) scanning transmission electron microscopic (STEM) tomography and
subpixel localization of atomic peaks, in a method termed atomic electron
tomography (AET). However, neither of these methods can determine the
three-dimensional atomic structure of heterogeneous nanomaterials containing
light elements. Here, we perform mixed-state electron ptychography from 34.5
million diffraction patterns to reconstruct a high-resolution tilt series of a
double wall-carbon nanotube (DW-CNT), encapsulating a complex $mathrm{ZrTe}$
sandwich structure. Class averaging of the resulting reconstructions and
subpixel localization of the atomic peaks in the reconstructed volume reveals
the complex three-dimensional atomic structure of the core-shell
heterostructure with 17 picometer precision. From these measurements, we solve
the full $mathrm{Zr_{11}Te_{50}}$ structure, which contains a previously
unobserved $mathrm{ZrTe_{2}}$ phase in the core. The experimental realization
of ptychographic atomic electron tomography (PAET) will allow for structural
determination of a wide range of nanomaterials which are beam-sensitive or
contain light elements.
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