Prospects for sub-nanometer scale imaging of optical phenomena using electron microscopy
Appl. Phys. Lett. 2021, 118, 033104
Ze Zhang, Archith Rayabharam, Joel Martis, Hao-Kun Li, Narayana R. Aluru, and Arun Majumdar
The abstract reads as follows: Imaging of optical phenomena at the sub-nanometer scale can offer fundamental insights into the electronic or vibrational states in atomic-scale defects, molecules, and nanoparticles, which are important in quantum information, heterogeneous catalysis, optoelectronics, and structural biology. Several techniques have surpassed the traditional Abbe diffraction limit and attained spatial resolutions down to a few nanometers, but sub-nanometer scale optics has remained elusive. Here, we propose an approach that combines spectrally specific photoabsorption with sub-nanometer scale resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of photoexcited electrons. We first estimate the signal level and conditions required for imaging nanoscale optical phenomena in core-shell quantum dots (QDs) like CdS/CdTe. Furthermore, we show the possibility of imaging photoexcited states of atomic-scale defects in a monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) using ab initio and high resolution (HR)TEM simulations. The ability to directly visualize photoexcited states at the sub-nanometer scale opens opportunities to study properties of individual quantum dots and atomic defects.
This work was supported as part of the Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport (CENT), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0019112.