Characterization and analytical techniques articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phase-sensitive measurements are important to gain insights of light-matter interactions and require phase-controlled pulses. Here the authors demonstrate the phase control and interferometric autocorrelation on a free electron laser using SASE pulse pair created with a split and delay unit.

    • Sergey Usenko
    • , Andreas Przystawik
    •  & Tim Laarmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantitative characterization of supported nanomaterials is challenging, because the nanomaterial signals cannot easily be deconvoluted from those of the substrate. Here, the authors introduce an inventive approach to overcome this problem for electron-based surface analysis techniques.

    • Bo Da
    • , Jiangwei Liu
    •  & Zejun Ding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing methods of characterizing electron beams carrying orbital angular momentum are inefficient as they allow measuring one OAM state at a time. Here the authors demonstrate an OAM spectrometer capable of analysing multiple OAM states and a potential tool for probing magnetic materials.

    • Vincenzo Grillo
    • , Amir H. Tavabi
    •  & Ebrahim Karimi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism enables the measurement of the local magnetic properties of a material using a transmission electron microscope, but is limited to signals in the electron-beam direction. Here, the authors demonstrate a method to extend this to in-plane magnetic signals too.

    • Dongsheng Song
    • , Amir H. Tavabi
    •  & Jing Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ion transport in solid-state materials is a fundamental process for many modern technologies. Utilizing electrostatic force microscopy, Yanget al. directly visualize ion motion and verify the oxygen ion dynamics within HfO2—a common metal-oxide based memristive material.

    • Yuchao Yang
    • , Xiaoxian Zhang
    •  & Ru Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electronegativity is a fundamental concept in chemistry; however it is an elusive quantity to evaluate experimentally. Here, the authors estimate the Pauling electronegativity of individual atoms on a surface via atomic force microscopy using a variety of chemically reactive tips.

    • Jo Onoda
    • , Martin Ondráček
    •  & Yoshiaki Sugimoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene, and other 2D materials, do not exist as strictly planar sheets but instead have topographic ripples on the sub-nanometre scale. Here, Latychevskaiaet al. present a method to non-invasively image ripples in 2D materials with a single-shot, wide-area, electron diffraction measurement.

    • Tatiana Latychevskaia
    • , Wei-Hao Hsu
    •  & Ing-Shouh Hwang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carrier mobility is a basic semiconductor property. Manteet al., use femtosecond lasers to investigate coherent acoustic phonons and relate their deformation potentials to estimate the intrinsic electron and hole mobilities of CH3NH3PbI3 single crystals to be 2,800 and 9,400 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively.

    • Pierre-Adrien Mante
    • , Constantinos C. Stoumpos
    •  & Arkady Yartsev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solid-state NMR can in principle be used to study calcium environments in biomaterials such as bones/teeth, but43Ca lacks receptivity. Here the authors present an approach to acquire 43Ca data for hydroxyapatite at its natural isotopic abundance, distinguishing between core and surface Ca sites.

    • Daniel Lee
    • , César Leroy
    •  & Gaël De Paëpe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetoelectric coupling allows switching of magnetic states via gate voltage pulses. Here the authors propose and demonstrate a purely antiferromagnetic magnetoelectric random access memory based on Cr2O3, reporting 50-fold reduction of writing threshold compared to ferromagnetic counterparts.

    • Tobias Kosub
    • , Martin Kopte
    •  & Denys Makarov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding bimetallic alloy oxidation is key to design of hollow-structured binary oxides and their optimization for applications, e.g., as catalysts. Here the authors combine real-time imaging and chemically-sensitive electron tomography to uncover unexpected complexity in possible morphological outcomes of bimetallic oxidation.

    • Lili Han
    • , Qingping Meng
    •  & Huolin L. Xin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoscale processes may directly impact macroscopic mechanical behaviour. Here authors describe a ‘phase-transformation strengthening’ mechanism in nickel-based high temperature alloys, allowing suppression of deleterious deformation processes at elevated temperatures by specific alloying elements.

    • T. M. Smith
    • , B. D. Esser
    •  & M. J. Mills

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Doping can introduce structural distortions in a molecular crystal in the form of polar domains. Here, the authors combine pyroelectric measurements and computation to reveal the molecular structure of such domains in centrosymmetric α-glycine crystals doped with L-amino acids.

    • E. Meirzadeh
    • , I. Azuri
    •  & I. Lubomirsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Analysis of the mechanical properties of two-dimensional materials is important for device development. Here, the authors report a microscopic method for measuring the adhesion of graphene on top of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite, which exploits atomic-scale blisters formed upon neon atom intercalation.

    • Jun Wang
    • , Dan C. Sorescu
    •  & Petro Maksymovych

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low repetition rate lasers are suitable for studying nonlinear optical phenomena, while near-field microscopy allows high spatial resolution for nanomaterial characterisation. Here, Wang et al. enable scattering-type near-field microscopy with low repetition rate lasers through phase-domain sampling.

    • Haomin Wang
    • , Le Wang
    •  & Xiaoji G. Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silk protein fibres are exceptionally strong, owing to their high β-sheet nanocrystal content. Here, the authors use an electron beam to guide silk β-sheet crystals through structural transitions, and visualize the changes by infrared near-field optics, achieving close to molecular-level resolution.

    • Nan Qin
    • , Shaoqing Zhang
    •  & Tiger H. Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origins of non-periodic growth features observed in irregular eutectics have been a source of controversy. Here authors use time-resolved X-ray microtomography during eutectic growth of an alloy to show how competing models can be extended and reconciled.

    • Ashwin J. Shahani
    • , Xianghui Xiao
    •  & Peter W. Voorhees

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Size and molecular composition of biological nanoparticles dictate their function, but cannot be simultaneously determined accurately. Here, Höök and others have subjected constrained biological nanoparticles on a lipid bilayer to hydrodynamic flow to quantify accurately both size and emission intensity.

    • Stephan Block
    • , Björn Johansson Fast
    •  & Fredrik Höök

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mesoscopic electrical circuits are an ideal platform to explore quantum phenomena, but this requires cooling the electrons to very low temperature, which is challenging. Here, the authors employ three different in situthermometers to report electronic quantum transport at 6mK in a micrometer-scale circuit.

    • Z. Iftikhar
    • , A. Anthore
    •  & F. Pierre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of ptychography with electrons has been limited. Here, Yang et al. demonstrate that the combination of Z-contrast and phase imaging reveals the structure of complex nanomaterials. This practical tool can be used to solve the structure of a beam-sensitive carbon nanostructure at atomic-resolution.

    • H. Yang
    • , R. N. Rutte
    •  & P. D. Nellist

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The properties of 2D materials such as graphene can vary according to the quality and, for vertical devices, the interfaces between materials. Here, the authors report a method using TOF-SIMS, micro-Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy to give high levels of detail of vertical 2D heterostructures.

    • Harry Chou
    • , Ariel Ismach
    •  & Andrei Dolocan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although screw dislocations impact on the properties of various engineering materials, their investigation on the atomic scale has been challenging. Here, the authors use optical sectioning in a scanning transmission electron microscope to achieve direct imaging of screw displacements around a screw dislocation core in GaN.

    • H. Yang
    • , J. G. Lozano
    •  & P. D. Nellist

  • Article |

    Heterogeneous chemical processes are vital for many applications, but the crucial interfaces involved are difficult to probe experimentally with elemental and chemical-state specificity. Here, the authors present a photoelectron spectroscopy-based method for studying such interfaces with sub-nanometre accuracy and under realistic pressure conditions

    • Slavomír Nemšák
    • , Andrey Shavorskiy
    •  & Charles S. Fadley

  • Article |

    The integration of graphene with silver offers the promise of combining the electronic and plasmonic properties of both materials. Here, Kiraly et al.achieve the growth of graphene on a silver substrate, with the graphene electronic structure only minimally affected by the silver.

    • Brian Kiraly
    • , Erin V. Iski
    •  & Nathan P. Guisinger

  • Article |

    The mechanical testing of thin films is non-trivial, due to their very fine dimensions. Kim et al. use the inherent surface tension of water as a platform for the frictionless tensile testing of gold films, with a thickness as fine as 55 nm.

    • Jae-Han Kim
    • , Adeel Nizami
    •  & Taek-Soo Kim

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