Transmission electron microscopy has undergone a true revolution over the last two decades. Aberration-correction, progress in detector technology for both imaging and spectroscopy, developments in low and distributed dose techniques have all contributed to spurring what could be arguably described as a new era in nano-scale materials characterization. It is now possible to detect quantitatively what atoms are where, often with single atom sensitivity and in some cases in three dimensions. Spectroscopy techniques can then reveal the chemical and bonding environment of materials down to the single atom level. Such powerful techniques are of course invaluable in the field of semiconductor science, where the design of novel materials and the tailoring of their properties for increasingly demanding applications rely on controlling structure and chemistry at the atomic level. This special issue aims at highlighting this progress and at providing the Journal’s readership a survey of some of the areas of research in semiconductor and materials science where advanced electron microscopy is having a marked impact, hopefully enticing an even more widespread use of EM techniques in the field in years to come.
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from : Understanding individual defects in CdTe thin-film solar cells via STEM: From atomic structure to electrical activity Chen Li a,n, Jonathan Poplawsky b, Yanfa Yan c, Stephen J. Pennycook dArticles:
Atomically resolved mapping of EELS fine structures
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 65, 2017, Pages 2-17.
Alexandre Gloter, Vincent Badjeck, Laura Bocher, Nathalie Brun, Katia March, Maya Marinova, Marcel Tencé, Michael Walls, Alberto Zobelli, Odile Stéphan, Christian Colliex
Understanding individual defects in CdTe thin-film solar cells via STEM: From atomic structure to electrical activity
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 65, 2017, Pages 64-76
Chen Li, Jonathan Poplawsky, Yanfa Yan, Stephen J. Pennycook
Electron-optical sectioning for three-dimensional imaging of crystal defect structure
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 65, 2017, Pages 18-23
Peter D. Nellist
Correlative microscopy analyses of thin-film solar cells at multiple scales
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 65, 2017, Pages 35-43
Daniel Abou-Ras
Plasmon spectroscopy of graphene and other two-dimensional materials with transmission electron microscopy
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 65, 2017, Pages 88-99
Antonio Politano, Gennaro Chiarello, Corrado Spinella
About the Guest Editors:
Giuseppe Nicotra:
Giuseppe Nicotra is staff researcher at the headquarters of the IMM-CNR of Catania, and director of the Beyondnano Electron Microscopy facility. He got the the PhD in materials science at University of Catania, working also as visitor researcher at the University of California at Davis and the National Center for Electron Microscopy, Berkeley (USA). He is member of European Microscopy society (EMS), Microscopy Society of America (MSA) and the Italian Society for Electron Microscopy (SISM). His initial works spans from the study of processes and synthesis of nanostructures for applications both microelectronics and photonics. Than he was in charge to build up the first Sub-Å Electron Microscopy lab in Italy, in the framework of Beyondnano, a project of Italian minister of scientific research. Recently he is involved into the study of new innovative two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as Graphene, Silicene and Phosphorene, at atomic level.
Quentin Ramasse:
Quentin Ramasse is the Director of the SuperSTEM Laboratory, the EPSRC UK National Facility for Advanced Electron Microscopy, and holds a joint Chair in Electron Microscopy at the School of Physics and School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, U.K. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge as a member of the Microstructural Physics Group working on optical aberration measurements methodologies for aberration-corrected STEM. Before taking up his post at SuperSTEM he held a Staff Scientist position at the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) in Berkeley, a U.S. Department of Energy-funded user facility where he took part in the TEAM project which saw development of the world's first 0.5A electron microscope. Quentin Ramasse has published extensively in the field of STEM-EELS, with a dual focus on STEM technique development and on applications to a wide range of energy harvesting materials, from 2-dimensional materials such as graphene and MoS2 nano-catalysts to complex oxides.