• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제48권1호
• /
• pp.27-32
• /
• 2018

Barium titanate ($BaTiO_3$) nanoparticle is one of the most promising materials for future multi-layer ceramic capacitor and ferroelectric random access memory. It is well known that electrical property of nanoparticles depends on the atomistic structure. Although surface may possibly have an impact on the atomistic structure, reconstructed structure at the surface has not been widely investigated. In the present study, Ba-ion position near surface in a $BaTiO_3$ nanoparticle has been quantitatively characterized by scanning transmission electron microscopy. It was found that some Ba ions at the surface were greatly displaced in non-uniform directions.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제24권4호
• /
• pp.123-131
• /
• 1994

In this study the initial stage nucleation and growth of Ni silicide on (001) Si by evaporation and furnace annealing have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The pressure was $10^{-6}$ Torr during evaporation and annealing. And the annealing temperature to produce $NiSi_2\;was\;800^{\circ}C$. From the evaporated film, $NiSi_2$ nucleus has grown into Si substrate with an epitaxial orientation relationship. Interfaces between $NiSi_2$ and Si were A-type {111} interfaces and {100} $NiSi_2$ interfaces were also observed at the initial stage of nucleation. Ni silicide grew into Si substrate, but the nucleus partly grew into the evaporated film, with no facets, from the nuclei in the Si substrate. $NiSi_2$ nucleus with (111) habit planes was also observed.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제46권3호
• /
• pp.167-169
• /
• 2016

Solder/electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) joint sample which is comprised of dissimilar materials with different mechanical properties has limited the level of success in preparing thin samples for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This short technical note reports the operation parameters for ultramicrotomy of solder joint sample and TEM analysis results. The solder joint sample was successfully sliced to 50~70 nm thick lamellae at slicing speed of 0.8~1.2 mm/s using a boat-type $45^{\circ}$ diamond knife. Ultramicrotomy can be applied as a routine sample preparation technique for TEM analysis of solder joints.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제44권4호
• /
• pp.133-137
• /
• 2014

We suggest a facile transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimen preparation method for the direct (polymer-free) transfer of layer-area graphene from Cu substrates to a TEM grid. The standard (polymer-based) method and direct transfer method were by TEM, high-resolution TEM, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The folds and crystalline particles were formed in a graphene specimen by the standard method, while the graphene specimen by the direct method with a new etchant solution exhibited clean and full coverage of the graphene surface, which reduced several wet chemical steps and accompanying mechanical stresses and avoided formation of the oxide metal.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제50권
• /
• pp.23.1-23.9
• /
• 2020

We propose an effective deep learning model to denoise scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) image series, named Noise2Atom, to map images from a source domain 𝓢 to a target domain 𝓒, where 𝓢 is for our noisy experimental dataset, and 𝓒 is for the desired clear atomic images. Noise2Atom uses two external networks to apply additional constraints from the domain knowledge. This model requires no signal prior, no noise model estimation, and no paired training images. The only assumption is that the inputs are acquired with identical experimental configurations. To evaluate the restoration performance of our model, as it is impossible to obtain ground truth for our experimental dataset, we propose consecutive structural similarity (CSS) for image quality assessment, based on the fact that the structures remain much the same as the previous frame(s) within small scan intervals. We demonstrate the superiority of our model by providing evaluation in terms of CSS and visual quality on different experimental datasets.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제47권3호
• /
• pp.160-164
• /
• 2017

Electron crystallography has been used as the one of powerful tool for studying the structure of biological macromolecules at high resolution which is sufficient to provide details of intramolecular and intermolecular interactions at near-atomic level. Previously it commonly uses two-dimensional crystals that are periodic arrangement of biological molecules, however recent studies reported a novel technical approach to electron crystallography of three-dimensional crystals, called micro electron-diffraction (MicroED) which involves placing the irregular and small sized protein crystals in a transmission electron microscope to determine the atomic structure. In here, we review the advances in electron crystallography techniques with several recent studies. Furthermore, we discuss the future direction of this structural approach.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제45권4호
• /
• pp.195-198
• /
• 2015

Gas-assisted etching (GAE) with focused ion beam (FIB) was applied to prepare plan-view specimens of Cu thin-layer on a silicon substrate for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). GAE using $XeF_2$ gas selectively etched the silicon substrate without volume loss of the Cu thin-layer. The plan-view specimen of the Cu thin film prepared by FIB milling with GAE was observed by scanning electron microscopy and $C_S$-corrected high-resolution TEM to estimate the size and microstructure of the TEM specimen. The GAE with FIB technique overcame various artifacts of conventional FIB milling technique such as bending, shrinking and non-uniform thickness of the TEM specimens. The Cu thin film was uniform in thickness and relatively larger in size despite of the thickness of <200 nm.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제45권2호
• /
• pp.101-105
• /
• 2015

Numerous digital image analysis techniques have been developed with regard to transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with the help of programming. DigitalMicrograph (DM, Gatan Inc., USA), which is installed on most TEMs as operational software, includes a script language to develop customized software for image analysis. Based on the DM script language, this work provides a script source listing for quantitative strain measurements based on a geometric phase analysis.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제50권
• /
• pp.21.1-21.3
• /
• 2020

Sample preparation is significantly important to the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) characterization of nanomaterials. However, many general organic solvents can dissolve the necessary organic polymer support layer in TEM grid, which causes it difficult to obtain high-quality samples of oil-soluble nanomaterials. In this study, a new sample preparation method for oil-soluble nanomaterials has been developed by using the sublimable material as a transition layer. Experiments also show that there is no damage to TEM grids and high-quality HRTEM images can be obtained via this method. This approach paves the way to applicable HRTEM sample preparation of oil-soluble nanomaterials.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• 제52권
• /
• pp.11.1-11.9
• /
• 2022

Zoonotic poxvirus infections pose significant threat to human health as we have witnessed recent spread of monkeypox. Therefore, insights into molecular mechanism behind poxvirus replication cycle are needed for the development of efficient antiviral strategies. Virion assembly is one of the key steps that determine the fate of replicating poxviruses. However, in-depth understanding of poxvirus assembly is challenging due to the complex nature of multi-step morphogenesis and heterogeneous virion structures. Despite these challenges, decades of research have revealed virion morphologies at various maturation stages, critical protein components and interactions with host cell compartments. Transmission electron microscopy has been employed as an indispensable tool for the examination of virion morphology, and more recently for the structure determination of protein complexes. In this review, we describe some of the major findings in poxvirus morphogenesis and the contributions of continuously advancing electron microscopy techniques.