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

TL;DR

This study employs advanced electron microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to characterize three-dimensional silicon metalattices, revealing their structure, electronic properties, and local density of states, with implications for nanostructure design.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed characterization of silicon metalattices synthesized via high-pressure chemical vapor deposition, including their structure and electronic properties, using electron tomography and spectroscopy.

Findings

Meta-atoms mimic colloidal silica template shapes.

Meta-bonds show larger electronic shifts than meta-atoms.

Local density of states calculations agree with experimental data.

Abstract

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.