Measuring Lattice Strain in Three Dimensions through Electron Microscopy

Abstract

The three-dimensional (3D) atomic structure of nanomaterials, including strain, is crucial to understand their properties. Here, we investigate lattice strain in Au nanodecahedra using electron tomography. Although different electron tomography techniques enabled 3D characterizations of nanostructures at the atomic level, a reliable determination of lattice strain is not straightforward. We therefore propose a novel model-based approach from which atomic coordinates are measured. Our findings demonstrate the importance of investigating lattice strain in 3D.

Recent Advances in Transmission Electron Microscopy for Materials Science at the EMAT Lab of the University of Antwerp

“…Recently, Goris et al, conducted a study to compare strain investigations relying on 2D projections with 3D measurements based on high-resolution electron tomographic reconstructions [75]. The 3D measurements displayed an outward relaxation of the crystal lattice which could not be seen from a single 2D projection image.…”

Parametric Reconstruction of Glass Fiber-reinforced Polymer Composites from X-ray Projection Data—A Simulation Study

“…The values of each of those sub-voxels are then computed using Eq. (11). The values obtained that way are averaged and assigned to the corresponding voxel, thus aliasing the fiber borders.…”

“…Initial values of the parameters are obtained from a first reconstruction of the volume using a conventional Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (ART), followed by a template matching approach similar to the one presented in [10]. A similar model-based approach was already implemented to reconstruct the crystal lattice of a gold nanoparticle at atomic resolution from electron tomography data [11].…”

Atomic Electron Tomography: Probing 3D Structure and Material Properties at the Single-Atom Level

“…Using atomic electron tomography (AET) [1,[9][10][11][12][13][14], we determine the 3D coordinates of 6,569 iron and 16,627 platinum atoms in an FePt nanoparticle to correlate the 3D atomic structure with material properties at the single-atom level [15]. We identify rich structural variety and chemical order/disorder including 3D atomic composition, grain boundaries, anti-phase boundaries, anti-site point defects and swap defects.…”