From the Atomic Structure to the Optoelectronic Properties Studies of 1D and 2D Complex Nanostructures via TEM

In the last two decades, transmission electron microscopes (TEM) have undergone a large number of improvements allowing very high energy resolutions (few meV) for a close to one angstrom electron beam. These performances offer new possibilities in different TEM fields, in particular these ones concerning the low-energy-loss measurements: studies of the optical, dielectric and electronic properties of materials with unprecedented spatial information. In this contribution, I will present a selection of recent works taking advantage of these new capabilities in a TEM for studying the atomic structure and the opto-electronic properties of different 1D and 2D nanostructures [1-5]. In particular, I will focus on the in-situ thermal reduction of the graphene oxide (GO) [1,2], including the transport measurements carried out during the reduction of this material [2] as well as on the studies of 1D misfit layered nanomaterials [3,4] and the plasmonic response of high-aspect ratio Au nanowires [5]. These works illustrate the rich information that can be obtained via this kind of experiments and their interest for studying such nanomaterials. All these findings improve the knowledge of these complex nanomaterials, which is crucial for the study of their physical properties and its future applications.

 

[1] M. Pelaez-Fernandez, A. Bermejo Solis, A.M. Benito, W.K. Maser, R. Arenal, Carbon 178, 477 (2021).

[2] S. Hettler, D. Sebastian, M. Pelaez, A.M. Benito, W.K. Maser, R. Arenal, 2D Materials 8, 031001 (2021).

[3] S. Hettler, M.B. Sreedhara, M. Serra, S.S. Sinha, R. Popovitz-Biro, I. Pinkas, A.N. Enyashin, R. Tenne, R. Arenal, ACS Nano 14, 5445 (2020).

[4] M. B. Sreedharaa, S. Hettler, I. Kaplan-Ashiri, K. Rechav, Y. Feldman, A. Enyashin, L. Houben, R. Arenal, R. Tenne, PNAS 118, e2109945118 (2021). 

[5] M. Pelaez-Fernandez, B. Majerus, D. Funes, R. Dufour, J.L. Duvail, L. Henrard, R. Arenal, submitted.