Determining Local Atomic Structures Using Atomic-scale Electron Beams

A/Professor Joanne Etheridge

Director, Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy and Dept. of Materials Engineering, Monash University

3:30 pm Friday, 30 October 2009, EN101 (Ground Floor, EN Building), Hawthorn.

This talk will give an overview of recent developments in transmission electron diffraction and microscopy and their application to the determination of atomic structures and defect structures with high spatial resolution. Recent advances in electron-optics have enabled the generation of focussed electron beams that have intensity profiles less than an Ångström in diameter and a high degree of spatial and temporal coherence. These tiny electron beams can be used to obtain diffraction, imaging and spectroscopy data from small numbers of atoms selected from within the specimen, opening new possibilities, as well as new interpretative issues, for the determination of local atomic structures and bonding at atomic resolution. A common area of application is in the determination of the local structure of so-called "nanostructured materials", whose special properties often depend on a tiny number of atoms located in key positions, such as at an interface or in a monolayer.

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