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  • Perspective
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Quantifying transmission electron microscopy irradiation effects using two-dimensional materials

Nature Reviews Physics volume 1, pages 397–405 (2019)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 31 July 2019

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Abstract

Recent advances in transmission electron microscopy instrumentation have made it an indispensable technique for atomic-scale materials characterization. Concurrently, the availability of 2D materials has provided ideal samples in which each atom or vacancy can be resolved. New possibilities for the application of focused electron irradiation are being revealed, namely, the controlled manipulation of structures and even individual atoms. Evaluating the full range of possibilities for this method requires precise understanding of the electron–matter interactions, which is becoming feasible owing to advances in both experimental techniques and theoretical models. In this Perspective, we summarize the state of knowledge of the underlying physical processes on the basis of the latest results on 2D materials, with a focus on the physical principles of electron–matter interactions rather than material-specific irradiation-induced defects. Two-dimensional materials could provide the experimental guidance for the development of quantitative models applicable to a wide range of materials.

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Fig. 1: Energy transfer in elastic backscattering from a moving nucleus.
Fig. 2: Electron irradiation damage cross sections.

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  • 31 July 2019

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank T. Lehnert, U. Kaiser and W. Zhou for providing MoS2 data, and A. Krasheninnikov, Q. Ramasse, O. Cretu, A. Yoshimura, C. Su, A. Chirita, A. Markevich and G. Leuthner for helpful discussions. T.S. was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) Grant 756277-ATMEN and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project P 28322-N36. J.C.M. was supported by the ERC Grant 336453-PICOMAT. J.K. was supported by the FWF projects I 3181 and P 31605, and the Wiener Wissenschafts-, Forschungs-, und Technologiefonds (WWTF) project MA14-009.

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  1. University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Vienna, Austria

    Toma Susi & Jani Kotakoski

  2. University of Tübingen, Institute of Applied Physics, Tübingen, Germany

    Jannik C. Meyer

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T.S. conceived the Perspective article and drafted the manuscript with contributions from J.C.M. and J.K. All authors edited and revised the text before submission.

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Nature Reviews Physics thanks R. Egerton, S. Kalinin and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Susi, T., Meyer, J.C. & Kotakoski, J. Quantifying transmission electron microscopy irradiation effects using two-dimensional materials. Nat Rev Phys 1, 397–405 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-019-0058-y

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