Direct imaging of electron density with a scanning transmission electron microscope

Ondrej Dyck (), Jawaher Almutlaq, David Lingerfelt, Jacob L. Swett, Mark P. Oxley, Bevin Huang, Andrew R. Lupini, Dirk Englund and Stephen Jesse
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Ondrej Dyck: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Jawaher Almutlaq: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Lingerfelt: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Jacob L. Swett: Arizona State University
Mark P. Oxley: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Bevin Huang: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Andrew R. Lupini: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Dirk Englund: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stephen Jesse: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Recent studies of secondary electron (SE) emission in scanning transmission electron microscopes suggest that material’s properties such as electrical conductivity, connectivity, and work function can be probed with atomic scale resolution using a technique known as secondary electron e-beam-induced current (SEEBIC). Here, we apply the SEEBIC imaging technique to a stacked 2D heterostructure device to reveal the spatially resolved electron density of an encapsulated WSe2 layer. We find that the double Se lattice site shows higher emission than the W site, which is at odds with first-principles modelling of valence ionization of an isolated WSe2 cluster. These results illustrate that atomic level SEEBIC contrast within a single material is possible and that an enhanced understanding of atomic scale SE emission is required to account for the observed contrast. In turn, this suggests that, in the future, subtle information about interlayer bonding and the effect on electron orbitals could be directly revealed with this technique.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42256-9

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