Scanning Transmission Electron Tomography and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy of Silicon Metalattices


Abstract in English

Transmission electron microscopy, scanning transmission electron tomography, and electron energy loss spectroscopy were used to characterize three-dimensional artificial Si nanostructures called metalattices, focusing on Si metalattices synthesized by high-pressure confined chemical vapor deposition in 30-nm colloidal silica templates with ~7 and ~12 nm meta-atoms and ~2 nm meta-bonds. The meta-atoms closely replicate the shape of the tetrahedral and octahedral interstitial sites of the face-entered cubic colloidal silica template. Composed of either amorphous or nanocrystalline silicon, the metalattice exhibits long-range order and interconnectivity in two-dimensional micrographs and three-dimensional reconstructions. Electron energy loss spectroscopy provides information on local electronic structure. The Si L2,3 core-loss edge is blue-shifted compared to the onset for bulk Si, with the meta-bonds displaying a larger shift (0.55 eV) than the two types of meta-atoms (0.30 and 0.17 eV). Local density of state calculations using an empirical tight binding method are in reasonable agreement.

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