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This image of a single suspended
sheet of graphene taken with TEAM
0.5, shows individual carbon atoms
(yellow) on the honeycomb lattice.
Closest Look Ever at Graphene: Stunning Images of Individual Carbon
Atoms From TEAM 0.5 microscope
SEPTEMBER 09, 2008
Lynn Yarris (510) 486-5375 lcyarris@lbl.gov
Berkeley, CA Hailed as the worlds most powerful transmission electron microscope, TEAM
0.5 is living up to expectations. Using TEAM 0.5 (TEAM stands for Transmission Electron
Aberration-corrected Microscope), researchers with the U.S. Department of Energys
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have produced stunning images of
individual carbon atoms in graphene, the two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon that is
highly prized by the electronics industry.
These first time ever images were recorded at Berkeley
Labs National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM), a
DOE national user facility that is a premier center for
electron microscopy and microcharacterization. TEAM 0.5,
its newest instrument, is capable of producing images with
half angstrom resolution, which is less than the diameter
of a single hydrogen atom.
Simply put, TEAM 0.5 is the best transmission electron
microscope in the world, representing a quantum leap
forward in instrumentation, said physicist Alex Zettl who
led this research. Having the ability to see, basically in real
time, each and every individual atom in a sample is
unbelievably useful and the images we can now see have
been jaw-dropping for even the most seasoned electron
microscopists. TEAM 0.5 is pushing transmission electron
microscopy to a new level.
Zettl holds joint appointments with Berkeley Labs
Materials Sciences Division (MSD) and the Physics
Department at the University of Californias Berkeley campus, where he is the director of
the Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems. Collaborating with him on this graphene
imaging project were Jannik Meyer, also with Berkeley Labs Materials Sciences Division, and
Christian Kisielowski, Rolf Erni and Marta Rossell of NCEM.
Their results were published in the journal Nanoletters, in a paper entitled: Direct imaging
of lattice atoms and topological defects in graphene membranes.
The properties of solid materials stem from the arrangement of their constituent atoms in
the solids crystal structure. While technologies such as electron and x-ray crystallography
can reveal the atomic geometry of a crystal, they do not identify the precise location and
position of each individual atom. When the dimensions of a material shrink to the
nanoscale, the location and position of each individual atom becomes critically important, as
Zettl explains.
Think of the steel re-bars on a three-dimensional
structure, like a jungle gym, he said. If a small piece of
re-bar is rusted out somewhere in the center of the gym,
it wont likely have much affect on the overall properties of

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Christian Kisielowski (left) and Alex
Zettl, scientists with the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, at
the TEAM 0.5 microscope, which
enables scientists to see each and
every individual atom in a sample,
a huge advantage for scientists
who study materials and their
properties.
the structure. In a two-dimensional structure, however, a
rusted out segment becomes a much bigger problem, and
in a one-dimensional structure, i.e., a single re-bar, a
rusted out segment can be catastrophic, causing the
entire structure to fail. On a nanoscale crystal, one missing
atom or some other defect in the arrangement can result
in catastrophic failure.
Graphene is especially sensitive to defects in its atomic
structure. Consisting of a single-layered sheet of carbon
atoms arranged in hexagons, like a sheet of chicken wire
with an atom at each nexus, graphene features
extraordinary electrical, mechanical and thermal properties
that could enable it to serve in a broad array of carbon-
based electronic devices. For the enormous promises of
graphene to be fulfilled, however, scientists need a much
better understanding of how specific types of defects in
the crystal structure, including those that change location
over time, affect its properties.
Theorists are currently making all kinds of predictions about the properties of graphene for
different local atomic configurations, but until TEAM 0.5, we did not have the ability to
actually see and study these configurations in real time, Zettl said.
TEAM 0.5 features state-of-the-art technical advances including an extremely bright
electron source, ultra-stable electronics to reduce drift and, perhaps most importantly, the
ability to provide optical corrections for spherical aberration (blurring). By making points of
light look like disks, spherical aberrations have been the prime limiting factors in the
resolution of transmission electron microscopy.
Says NCEM principal investigator and collaborator on this study Kisielowski, TEAM 0.5
allows for the detection of every single atom from the Periodic Table provided that the
sample under investigation can stand the radiation damage (TEAM 0.5s record-setting half-
angstrom resolution was achieved with an electron beam that was 300 kilovolts (kV) in
energy.)
Correcting spherical aberration makes it possible to use the TEAM 0.5 not only for broad-
beam wide-angle images but also for scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM),
in which the tightly focused electron beam is moved across a sample as a probe. In this
mode, TEAM 0.5 is capable of performing spectroscopy on one atom at a time an ideal
way to precisely locate impurities in an otherwise homogeneous sample, such as individual
dopant atoms in a semiconductor. Aberration correction also enables TEAM 0.5 to produce
high resolution images at relatively low electron beam energies. Because of their longer
wavelengths, lower energy electrons are more difficult to focus than higher energy
electrons. Aberration correction overcomes this problem.
Using TEAM 0.5, Zettl, Kisielowski and their collaborators were able to obtain images of
graphene membranes crystalline foils one atom thick at a resolution of one angstrom
using electron beams of a mere 80 kilovolts (kV) in energy.
The low voltage was crucial for the stability and study of these graphene membranes which
are much too fragile to be imaged at the higher energies required for conventional
transmission electron microscopy, said Zettl. That we were able to detect and resolve
every individual carbon atom in these foils at 80kV is relevant for future studies of organic
materials where low-z atoms dominate and higher energies are damaging to samples. TEAM
0.5 provides fantastic resolution at low electron energies, which is the best of both worlds
for organics.
Added Kisielowski, This is not even the end of the story. We have since made
improvements to further boost signal-to-noise ratios and already have new and even better
images. There is much more to come.
TEAM 0.5 was designed and constructed through a collaboration led by Berkeley Lab and
including DOEs Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, the Frederick Seitz Materials
Laboratory of the University of Illinois, and two private companies specializing in electron
microscopy, the FEI Company headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and CEOS of Heidelberg,
Germany.
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Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley,
California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of
California. Visit our website at http://www.lbl.gov.
Additional Information
To view an advanced copy of the paper Direct imaging of lattice atoms and topological
defects in graphene membranes which is now available on-line in the journal Nanoletters
click here:
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/asap.cgi/nalefd/asap/pdf/nl801386m.pdf
To learn more about Alex Zettl and his research group click here:
http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/zettl/
To learn more about TEAM 05. and the National Center for Electron Microscopy click here:
http://ncem.lbl.gov/
TAGS: materials sciences, nanotechnology, NCEM
A U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory Operated by the University of California
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