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Towards nanoscale confinement in TEM liquid cells

ORAL

Abstract

Liquid confinement below micrometer thicknesses is of interest to several scientific disciplines and is inherently challenging to study experimentally. More extreme confinement at the single-digit nanometer scale is possible through the use of self-assembled nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes. Bridging the gap between micro- and nanoscale liquid confinement has been achieved with two-piece liquid cells within a transmission electron microscope (TEM), but irreproducibility and difficulties maintaining uniform liquid layer thickness makes high spatial and spectroscopic resolution challenging. We report on improvements made to a monolithic, in-situ TEM liquid cell with sub 100nm liquid thickness that overcomes the common challenges encountered with two-piece TEM liquid cells.
1. Tanase, M. et al. High-Resolution Imaging and Spectroscopy at High Pressure: A Novel Liquid Cell for the Transmission Electron Microscope. Microsc. Microanal. 21, 1629–1638 (2015).

Presenters

  • Kyle Sendgikoski

    University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland

Authors

  • Kyle Sendgikoski

    University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland

  • Alokik Kanwal

    Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology

  • James A Liddle

    Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology

  • John Cumings

    University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park