Single-defect phonons imaged by electron microscopy

Xingxu Yan, Chengyan Liu, Chaitanya A. Gadre, Lei Gu, Toshihiro Aoki, Tracy C. Lovejoy, Niklas Dellby, Ondrej L. Krivanek, Darrell G. Schlom, Ruqian Wu () and Xiaoqing Pan ()
Additional contact information
Xingxu Yan: University of California, Irvine
Chengyan Liu: University of California, Irvine
Chaitanya A. Gadre: University of California, Irvine
Lei Gu: University of California, Irvine
Toshihiro Aoki: University of California, Irvine
Tracy C. Lovejoy: Nion R&D
Niklas Dellby: Nion R&D
Ondrej L. Krivanek: Nion R&D
Darrell G. Schlom: Cornell University
Ruqian Wu: University of California, Irvine
Xiaoqing Pan: University of California, Irvine

Nature, 2021, vol. 589, issue 7840, 65-69

Abstract: Abstract Crystal defects affect the thermal and heat-transport properties of materials by scattering phonons and modifying phonon spectra1–8. To appreciate how imperfections in solids influence thermal conductivity and diffusivity, it is thus essential to understand phonon–defect interactions. Sophisticated theories are available to explore such interactions, but experimental validation is limited because most phonon-detecting spectroscopic methods do not reach the high spatial resolution needed to resolve local vibrational spectra near individual defects. Here we demonstrate that space- and angle-resolved vibrational spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope makes it possible to map the vibrational spectra of individual crystal defects. We detect a red shift of several millielectronvolts in the energy of acoustic vibration modes near a single stacking fault in cubic silicon carbide, together with substantial changes in their intensity, and find that these changes are confined to within a few nanometres of the stacking fault. These observations illustrate that the capabilities of a state-of-the-art transmission electron microscope open the door to the direct mapping of phonon propagation around defects, which is expected to provide useful guidance for engineering the thermal properties of materials.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03049-y

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