Optimal acceleration voltage for near-atomic resolution imaging of layer-stacked 2D polymer thin films

Baokun Liang; Yingying Zhang; Christopher Leist; Zhaowei Ou; Miroslav Položij; Zhiyong Wang; David Mücke; Renhao Dong; Zhikun Zheng; Thomas Heine; Xinliang Feng; Ute Kaiser; Haoyuan Qi

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31688-4

Optimal acceleration voltage for near-atomic resolution imaging of layer-stacked 2D polymer thin films

Baokun Liang, Yingying Zhang, Christopher Leist, Zhaowei Ou, Miroslav Položij, Zhiyong Wang, David Mücke, Renhao Dong, Zhikun Zheng, Thomas Heine, Xinliang Feng, Ute Kaiser, Haoyuan Qi

Department of Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite superb instrumental resolution in modern transmission electron microscopes (TEM), high-resolution imaging of organic two-dimensional (2D) materials is a formidable task. Here, we present that the appropriate selection of the incident electron energy plays a crucial role in reducing the gap between achievable resolution in the image and the instrumental limit. Among a broad range of electron acceleration voltages (300 kV, 200 kV, 120 kV, and 80 kV) tested, we found that the highest resolution in the HRTEM image is achieved at 120 kV, which is 1.9 Å. In two imine-based 2D polymer thin films, unexpected molecular interstitial defects were unraveled. Their structural nature is identified with the aid of quantum mechanical calculations. Furthermore, the increased image resolution and enhanced image contrast at 120 kV enabled the detection of functional groups at the pore interfaces. The experimental setup has also been employed for an amorphous organic 2D material.

Original language	English
Article number	3948
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31688-4
Publication status	Published - 2022 Dec

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
B.L., C.L., D.M., U.K., and H.Q. gratefully acknowledge the funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 492191310; 426572620; 417590517 (SFB-1415), as well as the financial support the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 881603 (GrapheneCore3). Y.Z., M.P., and T.H. thank the ZIH Dresden for computer time. Y.Z. acknowledges China Scholarship Council. M.P. also thanks the financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Z.O., and Z.Z. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873236 and 51833011). Z.W., R.D., and X.F. acknowledge the financial support from the ERC Consolidator Grant on T2DCP (no. 819698), the ERC Starting Grant on FC2DMOF (no. 852909), the EU Graphene Flagship (no. 881603), the COORNET (SPP 1928), the DFG project (2D polyanilines, no. 426572620), the DFG SFB 1415 (no. 417590517), the CONJUGATION-706082, as well as the German Science Council, Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), EXC1056, and OR 349/1.

Funding Information:
B.L., C.L., D.M., U.K., and H.Q. gratefully acknowledge the funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 492191310; 426572620; 417590517 (SFB-1415), as well as the financial support the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 881603 (GrapheneCore3). Y.Z., M.P., and T.H. thank the ZIH Dresden for computer time. Y.Z. acknowledges China Scholarship Council. M.P. also thanks the financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Z.O., and Z.Z. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873236 and 51833011). Z.W., R.D., and X.F. acknowledge the financial support from the ERC Consolidator Grant on T2DCP (no. 819698), the ERC Starting Grant on FC2DMOF (no. 852909), the EU Graphene Flagship (no. 881603), the COORNET (SPP 1928), the DFG project (2D polyanilines, no. 426572620), the DFG SFB 1415 (no. 417590517), the CONJUGATION-706082, as well as the German Science Council, Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), EXC1056, and OR 349/1.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Chemistry(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
General
Physics and Astronomy(all)

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10.1038/s41467-022-31688-4

Cite this

@article{ff51bd25c85847668eb56f56803d3576,

title = "Optimal acceleration voltage for near-atomic resolution imaging of layer-stacked 2D polymer thin films",

abstract = "Despite superb instrumental resolution in modern transmission electron microscopes (TEM), high-resolution imaging of organic two-dimensional (2D) materials is a formidable task. Here, we present that the appropriate selection of the incident electron energy plays a crucial role in reducing the gap between achievable resolution in the image and the instrumental limit. Among a broad range of electron acceleration voltages (300 kV, 200 kV, 120 kV, and 80 kV) tested, we found that the highest resolution in the HRTEM image is achieved at 120 kV, which is 1.9 {\AA}. In two imine-based 2D polymer thin films, unexpected molecular interstitial defects were unraveled. Their structural nature is identified with the aid of quantum mechanical calculations. Furthermore, the increased image resolution and enhanced image contrast at 120 kV enabled the detection of functional groups at the pore interfaces. The experimental setup has also been employed for an amorphous organic 2D material.",

author = "Baokun Liang and Yingying Zhang and Christopher Leist and Zhaowei Ou and Miroslav Polo{\v z}ij and Zhiyong Wang and David M{\"u}cke and Renhao Dong and Zhikun Zheng and Thomas Heine and Xinliang Feng and Ute Kaiser and Haoyuan Qi",

note = "Funding Information: B.L., C.L., D.M., U.K., and H.Q. gratefully acknowledge the funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 492191310; 426572620; 417590517 (SFB-1415), as well as the financial support the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 881603 (GrapheneCore3). Y.Z., M.P., and T.H. thank the ZIH Dresden for computer time. Y.Z. acknowledges China Scholarship Council. M.P. also thanks the financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Z.O., and Z.Z. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873236 and 51833011). Z.W., R.D., and X.F. acknowledge the financial support from the ERC Consolidator Grant on T2DCP (no. 819698), the ERC Starting Grant on FC2DMOF (no. 852909), the EU Graphene Flagship (no. 881603), the COORNET (SPP 1928), the DFG project (2D polyanilines, no. 426572620), the DFG SFB 1415 (no. 417590517), the CONJUGATION-706082, as well as the German Science Council, Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), EXC1056, and OR 349/1. Funding Information: B.L., C.L., D.M., U.K., and H.Q. gratefully acknowledge the funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 492191310; 426572620; 417590517 (SFB-1415), as well as the financial support the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 881603 (GrapheneCore3). Y.Z., M.P., and T.H. thank the ZIH Dresden for computer time. Y.Z. acknowledges China Scholarship Council. M.P. also thanks the financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Z.O., and Z.Z. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873236 and 51833011). Z.W., R.D., and X.F. acknowledge the financial support from the ERC Consolidator Grant on T2DCP (no. 819698), the ERC Starting Grant on FC2DMOF (no. 852909), the EU Graphene Flagship (no. 881603), the COORNET (SPP 1928), the DFG project (2D polyanilines, no. 426572620), the DFG SFB 1415 (no. 417590517), the CONJUGATION-706082, as well as the German Science Council, Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), EXC1056, and OR 349/1. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

year = "2022",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1038/s41467-022-31688-4",

language = "English",

volume = "13",

journal = "Nature communications",

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T1 - Optimal acceleration voltage for near-atomic resolution imaging of layer-stacked 2D polymer thin films

AU - Liang, Baokun

AU - Zhang, Yingying

AU - Leist, Christopher

AU - Ou, Zhaowei

AU - Položij, Miroslav

AU - Wang, Zhiyong

AU - Mücke, David

AU - Dong, Renhao

AU - Zheng, Zhikun

AU - Heine, Thomas

AU - Feng, Xinliang

AU - Kaiser, Ute

AU - Qi, Haoyuan

N1 - Funding Information: B.L., C.L., D.M., U.K., and H.Q. gratefully acknowledge the funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 492191310; 426572620; 417590517 (SFB-1415), as well as the financial support the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 881603 (GrapheneCore3). Y.Z., M.P., and T.H. thank the ZIH Dresden for computer time. Y.Z. acknowledges China Scholarship Council. M.P. also thanks the financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Z.O., and Z.Z. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873236 and 51833011). Z.W., R.D., and X.F. acknowledge the financial support from the ERC Consolidator Grant on T2DCP (no. 819698), the ERC Starting Grant on FC2DMOF (no. 852909), the EU Graphene Flagship (no. 881603), the COORNET (SPP 1928), the DFG project (2D polyanilines, no. 426572620), the DFG SFB 1415 (no. 417590517), the CONJUGATION-706082, as well as the German Science Council, Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), EXC1056, and OR 349/1. Funding Information: B.L., C.L., D.M., U.K., and H.Q. gratefully acknowledge the funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 492191310; 426572620; 417590517 (SFB-1415), as well as the financial support the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 881603 (GrapheneCore3). Y.Z., M.P., and T.H. thank the ZIH Dresden for computer time. Y.Z. acknowledges China Scholarship Council. M.P. also thanks the financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Z.O., and Z.Z. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873236 and 51833011). Z.W., R.D., and X.F. acknowledge the financial support from the ERC Consolidator Grant on T2DCP (no. 819698), the ERC Starting Grant on FC2DMOF (no. 852909), the EU Graphene Flagship (no. 881603), the COORNET (SPP 1928), the DFG project (2D polyanilines, no. 426572620), the DFG SFB 1415 (no. 417590517), the CONJUGATION-706082, as well as the German Science Council, Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), EXC1056, and OR 349/1. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/12

Y1 - 2022/12

N2 - Despite superb instrumental resolution in modern transmission electron microscopes (TEM), high-resolution imaging of organic two-dimensional (2D) materials is a formidable task. Here, we present that the appropriate selection of the incident electron energy plays a crucial role in reducing the gap between achievable resolution in the image and the instrumental limit. Among a broad range of electron acceleration voltages (300 kV, 200 kV, 120 kV, and 80 kV) tested, we found that the highest resolution in the HRTEM image is achieved at 120 kV, which is 1.9 Å. In two imine-based 2D polymer thin films, unexpected molecular interstitial defects were unraveled. Their structural nature is identified with the aid of quantum mechanical calculations. Furthermore, the increased image resolution and enhanced image contrast at 120 kV enabled the detection of functional groups at the pore interfaces. The experimental setup has also been employed for an amorphous organic 2D material.

AB - Despite superb instrumental resolution in modern transmission electron microscopes (TEM), high-resolution imaging of organic two-dimensional (2D) materials is a formidable task. Here, we present that the appropriate selection of the incident electron energy plays a crucial role in reducing the gap between achievable resolution in the image and the instrumental limit. Among a broad range of electron acceleration voltages (300 kV, 200 kV, 120 kV, and 80 kV) tested, we found that the highest resolution in the HRTEM image is achieved at 120 kV, which is 1.9 Å. In two imine-based 2D polymer thin films, unexpected molecular interstitial defects were unraveled. Their structural nature is identified with the aid of quantum mechanical calculations. Furthermore, the increased image resolution and enhanced image contrast at 120 kV enabled the detection of functional groups at the pore interfaces. The experimental setup has also been employed for an amorphous organic 2D material.

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Optimal acceleration voltage for near-atomic resolution imaging of layer-stacked 2D polymer thin films

Abstract

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