Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Atom-by-atom fabrication with electron beams

Journal Article · · Nature Reviews. Materials
Assembling matter atom-by-atom into functional devices is the ultimate goal of nanotechnology. The possibility of achieving this goal is intrinsically dependent on the ability to visualize matter at the atomic level, induce and control atomic-scale motion, facilitate and direct chemical reactions, and coordinate and guide fabrication processes towards desired structures atom-by-atom. In this Perspective, we summarize recent progress in chemical transformations, material alterations and atomic dynamics studies enabled by the converged, atomic-sized electron beam of an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope. We discuss how such top-down observations have led to the concept of controllable, beam-induced processes and then of bottom-up, atom-by-atom assembly via electron-beam control. Finally, the progress in this field, from electron-beam-induced material transformations to atomically precise doping and multi-atom assembly, is reviewed, as are the associated engineering, theoretical and big-data challenges.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1607230
Journal Information:
Nature Reviews. Materials, Journal Name: Nature Reviews. Materials Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 4; ISSN 2058-8437
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (143)

From graphene constrictions to single carbon chains other January 2009
Two-Dimensional Nanocrystals Produced by Exfoliation of Ti3AlC2 journal August 2011
2D Monoelemental Arsenene, Antimonene, and Bismuthene: Beyond Black Phosphorus journal February 2017
Atom-by-Atom Fabrication of Monolayer Molybdenum Membranes journal April 2018
A Deep Learning Approach to Identify Local Structures in Atomic-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Images journal July 2018
Direct Observation of Atomic Dynamics and Silicon Doping at a Topological Defect in Graphene journal June 2014
Direct Observation of Atomic Dynamics and Silicon Doping at a Topological Defect in Graphene journal June 2014
Writing Silica Structures in Liquid with Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy journal September 2014
Atomic-Level Sculpting of Crystalline Oxides: Toward Bulk Nanofabrication with Single Atomic Plane Precision journal October 2015
Building Structures Atom by Atom via Electron Beam Manipulation journal August 2018
Building Structures Atom by Atom via Electron Beam Manipulation journal February 2019
Advanced Computing in Electron Microscopy book January 2010
Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy book January 2011
Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy in the Electron Microscope book January 2011
Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy in the Electron Microscope book January 1995
Advanced Computing in Electron Microscopy book January 1998
Advanced Computing in Electron Microscopy book January 2020
Deriving phosphorus atomic chains from few-layer black phosphorus journal April 2017
E-beam manipulation of Si atoms on graphene edges with an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope journal July 2018
The role of topology and geometry in the irradiation-induced amorphization of network structures journal March 1995
Radiation effects in ceramics journal October 1994
Damage effects of high energy electrons on metals journal January 1987
Atomic sputtering in the Analytical Electron Microscope journal April 1989
Electron beam induced regrowth of ion implantation damage in Si and Ge journal January 1999
Towards sub-Å electron beams journal June 1999
Low energy electron-beam-induced recrystallization of continuous GaAs amorphous foils journal September 1997
Crystallization from amorphous structure to hexagonal quantum dots induced by an electron beam on CdTe thin films journal February 2009
Radiation damage in the TEM and SEM journal August 2004
Radiation damage to organic and inorganic specimens in the TEM journal April 2019
Local crystal structure analysis with several picometer precision using scanning transmission electron microscopy journal June 2010
Control of radiation damage in the TEM journal April 2013
Revolving scanning transmission electron microscopy: Correcting sample drift distortion without prior knowledge journal March 2014
The correction of electron lens aberrations journal September 2015
Manipulating low-dimensional materials down to the level of single atoms with electron irradiation journal September 2017
Characterization of single-atom catalysts by EELS and EDX spectroscopy journal October 2018
Beam-Induced Motion of Adatoms in the Transmission Electron Microscope journal February 2013
Flexible Metallic Nanowires with Self-Adaptive Contacts to Semiconducting Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers journal August 2014
Interplay between Switching Driven by the Tunneling Current and Atomic Force of a Bistable Four-Atom Si Quantum Dot journal June 2015
Defect-Induced Conical Intersections Promote Nonradiative Recombination journal August 2015
Torsional Deformations in Subnanometer MoS Interconnecting Wires journal January 2016
Unexpected Huge Dimerization Ratio in One-Dimensional Carbon Atomic Chains journal December 2016
Electron-Beam Manipulation of Silicon Dopants in Graphene journal June 2018
Atomic Scale Microstructure and Properties of Se-Deficient Two-Dimensional MoSe 2 journal February 2015
Controlling Defects in Graphene for Optimizing the Electrical Properties of Graphene Nanodevices journal February 2015
In Situ Observations of Free-Standing Graphene-like Mono- and Bilayer ZnO Membranes journal October 2015
Structural Flexibility and Alloying in Ultrathin Transition-Metal Chalcogenide Nanowires journal January 2016
In Situ Observation of Oxygen Vacancy Dynamics and Ordering in the Epitaxial LaCoO 3 System journal June 2017
Deep Learning of Atomically Resolved Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Images: Chemical Identification and Tracking Local Transformations journal October 2016
Directed Atom-by-Atom Assembly of Dopants in Silicon journal May 2018
Photoisomerization dynamics of stilbenes journal May 1991
Electron–Water Interactions and Implications for Liquid Cell Electron Microscopy journal September 2014
Sub-10 nm Device Fabrication in a Transmission Electron Microscope journal May 2007
Large Scale Growth and Characterization of Atomic Hexagonal Boron Nitride Layers journal August 2010
Atomic-Scale Electron-Beam Sculpting of Near-Defect-Free Graphene Nanostructures journal June 2011
Structural Defects in Graphene journal November 2010
Electron-Beam-Induced Substitutional Carbon Doping of Boron Nitride Nanosheets, Nanoribbons, and Nanotubes journal March 2011
Molecule-by-Molecule Writing Using a Focused Electron Beam journal October 2012
Atomistic Description of Electron Beam Damage in Nitrogen-Doped Graphene and Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes journal September 2012
Phosphorene: An Unexplored 2D Semiconductor with a High Hole Mobility journal March 2014
Experimental Observation of Boron Nitride Chains journal October 2014
Electron microscopy image enhanced journal April 1998
Positioning single atoms with a scanning tunnelling microscope journal April 1990
Fire up the atom forge journal November 2016
Atom-by-atom structural and chemical analysis by annular dark-field electron microscopy journal March 2010
Deep learning journal May 2015
Direct visualization of reversible dynamics in a Si6 cluster embedded in a graphene pore journal April 2013
Top–down fabrication of sub-nanometre semiconducting nanoribbons derived from molybdenum disulfide sheets journal April 2013
Imaging atomic-level random walk of a point defect in graphene journal May 2014
Picometre-precision analysis of scanning transmission electron microscopy images of platinum nanocatalysts journal June 2014
Mechanical gate control for atom-by-atom cluster assembly with scanning probe microscopy journal July 2014
Atom inlays performed at room temperature using atomic force microscopy journal January 2005
The rise of graphene journal March 2007
A single-atom transistor journal February 2012
Atomic mechanism of the semiconducting-to-metallic phase transition in single-layered MoS2 journal April 2014
Flexible metallic nanowires with self-adaptive contacts to semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers journal April 2014
Learning surface molecular structures via machine vision journal August 2017
Mapping mesoscopic phase evolution during E-beam induced transformations via deep learning of atomically resolved images journal June 2018
Deep learning analysis of defect and phase evolution during electron beam-induced transformations in WS2 journal February 2019
Binary atomic silicon logic journal December 2018
Deep learning as a tool for increased accuracy and efficiency of histopathological diagnosis journal May 2016
Photoisomerization in different classes of azobenzene journal January 2012
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanosheets journal January 2015
Direct-write liquid phase transformations with a scanning transmission electron microscope journal January 2016
Substrate effects on the electron-beam-induced deposition of platinum from a liquid precursor journal January 2011
Ab initio non-adiabatic molecular dynamics journal January 2013
Full configuration interaction potential energy curves for breaking bonds to hydrogen: An assessment of single-reference correlation methods journal January 2003
The Theoretical Resolution Limit of the Electron Microscope journal January 1949
Electron-beam induced recrystallization in amorphous apatite journal January 2007
Electron beam nanosculpting of suspended graphene sheets journal September 2008
Ion and electron irradiation-induced effects in nanostructured materials journal April 2010
Epitaxial growth of a silicene sheet journal November 2010
Electron‐beam‐induced crystallization of isolated amorphous regions in Si, Ge, GaP, and GaAs journal July 1995
In situ observation on hydrogenation of Mg-Ni films using environmental transmission electron microscope with aberration correction journal August 2014
Placing single atoms in graphene with a scanning transmission electron microscope journal September 2017
Two-dimensional atomic crystals journal July 2005
TEM study of electron beam-induced crystallization of amorphous GeSi films journal November 2004
Electron beam damage in oxides: a review journal December 2015
Nanometer-scale lithography on microscopically clean graphene journal November 2011
Nanoscale alloying effect of gold–platinum nanoparticles as cathode catalysts on the performance of a rechargeable lithium–oxygen battery journal July 2012
Electron beam induced deposition of silicon nanostructures from a liquid phase precursor journal September 2012
Direct atomic fabrication and dopant positioning in Si using electron beams with active real-time image-based feedback journal April 2018
From graphene constrictions to single carbon chains journal August 2009
Germanene: a novel two-dimensional germanium allotrope akin to graphene and silicene journal September 2014
Towards atomically precise manipulation of 2D nanostructures in the electron microscope journal September 2017
STEM imaging of 47-pm-separated atomic columns by a spherical aberration-corrected electron microscope with a 300-kV cold field emission gun journal June 2009
Stone-Wales-type transformations in carbon nanostructures driven by electron irradiation journal June 2011
Time-dependent density-functional theory simulation of electron wave-packet scattering with nanoflakes journal July 2014
Accurate atomistic first-principles calculations of electronic stopping journal January 2015
Quantum dynamics of secondary electron emission from nanographene journal July 2016
Quantitative Atomic Resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy journal May 2008
Atomic-Resolution Imaging with a Sub-50-pm Electron Probe journal March 2009
Deriving Carbon Atomic Chains from Graphene journal May 2009
Accurate Measurement of Electron Beam Induced Displacement Cross Sections for Single-Layer Graphene journal May 2012
Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides under Electron Irradiation: Defect Production and Doping journal July 2012
Three-Dimensional Imaging of Individual Dopant Atoms in SrTiO 3 journal December 2013
Silicon–Carbon Bond Inversions Driven by 60-keV Electrons in Graphene journal September 2014
Direct Observation of Dopant Atom Diffusion in a Bulk Semiconductor Crystal Enhanced by a Large Size Mismatch journal October 2014
Gold Nanobridge Stabilized by Surface Structure journal November 1997
Mechanical Vertical Manipulation of Selected Single Atoms by Soft Nanoindentation Using Near Contact Atomic Force Microscopy journal May 2003
SegNet: A Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture for Image Segmentation journal December 2017
Energy deposition and transfer in electron-beam lithography
  • Wu, Bo; Neureuther, Andrew R.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 19, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1421548
journal January 2001
Electron induced nanodeposition of tungsten using field emission scanning and transmission electron microscopes
  • Shimojo, M.; Mitsuishi, K.; Tameike, A.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 22, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1688349
journal January 2004
Mitigating e-beam-induced hydrocarbon deposition on graphene for atomic-scale scanning transmission electron microscopy studies
  • Dyck, Ondrej; Kim, Songkil; Kalinin, Sergei V.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena, Vol. 36, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.5003034
journal January 2018
Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films journal October 2004
Insights into Current Limitations of Density Functional Theory journal August 2008
Complex Patterning by Vertical Interchange Atom Manipulation Using Atomic Force Microscopy journal October 2008
Free-Standing Single-Atom-Thick Iron Membranes Suspended in Graphene Pores journal March 2014
Opportunities and challenges in liquid cell electron microscopy journal December 2015
Combining satellite imagery and machine learning to predict poverty journal August 2016
The rise of graphene book August 2009
Accurate atomistic first-principles calculations of electronic stopping text January 2015
SegNet: A Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture for Image Segmentation. text January 2017
From Graphene constrictions to single carbon chains text January 2009
An accurate measurement of electron beam induced displacement cross sections for single-layer graphene text January 2012
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides under electron irradiation: defect production and doping text January 2012
Silicon-carbon bond inversions driven by 60 keV electrons in graphene text January 2014
SegNet: A Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture for Image Segmentation preprint January 2015
Deriving phosphorus atomic chain from few-layer black phosphorus text January 2016
Deep Learning of Atomically Resolved Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Images: Chemical Identification and Tracking Local Transformations text January 2018
Deep Learning Analysis of Defect and Phase Evolution During Electron Beam Induced Transformations in WS2 text January 2018
Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films text January 2004
Two Dimensional Atomic Crystals text January 2005
Deep Learning text January 2018

Cited By (4)

Pulsed Laser-Assisted Helium Ion Nanomachining of Monolayer Graphene—Direct-Write Kirigami Patterns journal September 2019
Electron‐Beam‐Related Studies of Halide Perovskites: Challenges and Opportunities journal February 2020
Engineered electronic states in atomically precise artificial lattices and graphene nanoribbons journal January 2019
Engineered electronic states in atomically precise artificial lattices and graphene nanoribbons text January 2019

Similar Records

The Atomic Drill Bit: Precision Controlled Atomic Fabrication of 2D Materials
Journal Article · Fri Feb 24 19:00:00 EST 2023 · Advanced Materials · OSTI ID:1996719

Atom-by-Atom Direct Writing
Journal Article · Sun Mar 05 19:00:00 EST 2023 · Nano Letters · OSTI ID:1996704