Solving complex nanostructures with ptychographic atomic electron tomography

Pelz, Philipp Michael; Griffin, Sinéad M.; Stonemeyer, Scott; Popple, Derek; DeVyldere, Hannah; Ercius, Peter; Zettl, Alex; Scott, Mary C.; Ophus, Colin

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43634-z

Title: Solving complex nanostructures with ptychographic atomic electron tomography

Journal Article · 30 November 2023 · Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43634-z · OSTI ID:2222933

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Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Bamberg (Germany). Institute of Micro- and Nanostructure Research (IMN) & Center for Nanoanalysis and Electron Microscopy (CENEM)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is essential for determining atomic scale structures in structural biology and materials science. In structural biology, three-dimensional structures of proteins are routinely determined from thousands of identical particles using phase-contrast TEM. In materials science, three-dimensional atomic structures of complex nanomaterials have been determined using atomic electron tomography (AET). However, neither of these methods can determine the three-dimensional atomic structure of heterogeneous nanomaterials containing light elements. Here, we perform ptychographic electron tomography from 34.5 million diffraction patterns to reconstruct an atomic resolution tilt series of a double wall-carbon nanotube (DW-CNT) encapsulating a complex ZrTe sandwich structure. Class averaging the resulting tilt series images and subpixel localization of the atomic peaks reveals a Zr₁₁Te₅₀ structure containing a previously unobserved ZrTe₂ phase in the core. The experimental realization of atomic resolution ptychographic electron tomography will allow for the structural determination of a wide range of beam-sensitive nanomaterials containing light elements.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1548924; DMR-1848079

OSTI ID:: 2222933

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2345914

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 14, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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