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Atomic-scale imaging of individual dopant atoms in a buried interface

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 654–658 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Determining the atomic structure of internal interfaces in materials and devices is critical to understanding their functional properties. Interfacial doping is one promising technique for controlling interfacial properties at the atomic scale1,2,3,4,5, but it is still a major challenge to directly characterize individual dopant atoms within buried crystalline interfaces. Here, we demonstrate atomic-scale plan-view observation of a buried crystalline interface (an yttrium-doped alumina high-angle grain boundary) using aberration-corrected Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy. The focused electron beam transmitted through the off-axis crystals clearly highlights the individual yttrium atoms located on the monoatomic layer interface plane. Not only is their unique two-dimensional ordered positioning directly revealed with atomic precision, but local disordering at the single-atom level, which has never been detected by the conventional approaches, is also uncovered. The ability to directly probe individual atoms within buried interface structures adds new dimensions to the atomic-scale characterization of internal interfaces and other defect structures in many advanced materials and devices.

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Figure 1: Schematic illustration and two cross-sectional Z-contrast STEM images of the Y-doped Σ 13 grain boundary of α-Al2O3.
Figure 2: Plan-view images of the Y-doped Σ 13 grain boundary.
Figure 3: Z-contrast STEM image simulation of the plan-view Y-doped Σ 13 grain boundary.
Figure 4: Filtered plan-view Z-contrast STEM image highlighting the two-dimensional positioning of the interface Y atoms.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas ‘Nano Materials Science for Atomic-scale Modification 474’ from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology Japan (MEXT). N.S. acknowledges support from PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the Industrial Technology Research Grant Program in 2007 from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), and the Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) (20686042) from MEXT. S.D.F. is supported as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Engineering Innovation, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

    N. Shibata, S. D. Findlay, S. Azuma, T. Mizoguchi, T. Yamamoto & Y. Ikuhara

  2. PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 4-1-8 Honcho Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan

    N. Shibata

  3. Nanostructures Research Laboratory, Japan Fine Ceramics Center, 2-4-1 Mutsuno, Atsuta, Nagoya 456-8587, Japan

    T. Yamamoto & Y. Ikuhara

  4. WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1, Katahira, Aoba, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

    Y. Ikuhara

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  1. N. Shibata
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  2. S. D. Findlay
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  3. S. Azuma
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  4. T. Mizoguchi
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  5. T. Yamamoto
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  6. Y. Ikuhara
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Contributions

N.S. designed and carried out the STEM experiments and wrote the paper. S.D.F. carried out image simulations, image processing and wrote the paper. S.A. fabricated the bicrystal. S.A., T.M. and T.Y. supported the experiments and carried out density functional theory calculations. Y.I. directed the entire study.

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Correspondence to N. Shibata.

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Shibata, N., Findlay, S., Azuma, S. et al. Atomic-scale imaging of individual dopant atoms in a buried interface. Nature Mater 8, 654–658 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2486

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