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LLE: Microscopy in Motion: Understanding How Crystals Grow Through Electron Microscopy Movies
Abstract
Building functional nanostructures with atomic level precision requires a detailed understanding of the chemistry and physics of crystal growth at the nanoscale. In situ experiments in the transmission electron microscope can help by providing unique measurements of individual nanostructures while they grow. I will show how movies recorded in the microscope help to explore the formation mechanisms of nanomaterials, focusing in particular on nanoscale islands of metals and semiconductors grown on two-dimensional materials such as graphene and MoS2. The difference in the nature of the bonding at the 3D nanocrystal / 2D material interface, compared to the situation for conventional epitaxy, generates interesting and potentially useful new growth modes and interfacial structures that the electron microscope reveals. The rapid pace of advances in electron microscopy instrumentation promise exciting future opportunities as well as new challenges in understanding materials growth and reactions using in situ techniques.
Bio
Frances M. Ross received her B.A. in Physics and Ph.D. in Materials Science from Cambridge University, UK. Her postdoc was at A.T.&T. Bell Laboratories, using in situ electron microscopy to visualize silicon oxidation and dislocation dynamics, after which she joined the National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, investigating other processes in situ including anodic etching of Si. She then moved to the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center where she imaged the growth of nanoscale materials using a microscope with deposition and focused ion beam capabilities, developed liquid cell microscopy for visualizing electrochemical processes, and measured growth and transport properties in a combined focused ion beam-scanning tunneling microscope system. She joined the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 2018 where her research continues to center on nanostructure self-assembly, liquid cell microscopy, epitaxy and electrochemical processes.
View the complete 2020-21 LLE schedule
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