@article{81c852e92bac45ae8a39e595ecaee0df,
title = "Prospects for sub-nanometer scale imaging of optical phenomena using electron microscopy",
abstract = "Imaging of optical phenomena at the sub-nanometer scale can offer fundamental insights into the electronic or vibrational states in atomic-scale defects, molecules, and nanoparticles, which are important in quantum information, heterogeneous catalysis, optoelectronics, and structural biology. Several techniques have surpassed the traditional Abbe diffraction limit and attained spatial resolutions down to a few nanometers, but sub-nanometer scale optics has remained elusive. Here, we propose an approach that combines spectrally specific photoabsorption with sub-nanometer scale resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of photoexcited electrons. We first estimate the signal level and conditions required for imaging nanoscale optical phenomena in core-shell quantum dots (QDs) like CdS/CdTe. Furthermore, we show the possibility of imaging photoexcited states of atomic-scale defects in a monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) using ab initio and high resolution (HR)TEM simulations. The ability to directly visualize photoexcited states at the sub-nanometer scale opens opportunities to study properties of individual quantum dots and atomic defects. ",
author = "Ze Zhang and Archith Rayabharam and Joel Martis and Li, {Hao Kun} and Aluru, {Narayana R.} and Arun Majumdar",
note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Charles Martin (U. Florida); John Fourkas, YuHuang Wang, and John Cumings (U. Maryland); Tuan Ahn Pham and Eric Schwegler (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory); Michael Strano (MIT); and Paul Alivisatos and Andrew Minor (UC Berkeley) for their scientific insights and suggestions. This work was supported as part of the Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport (CENT), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0019112. Z.Z. and J.M. acknowledge financial support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant No. FA9550–19-1–0309. The ab initio simulations (DFT and GW) were carried out on the Blue Waters, supported by the National Science Foundation (Award Nos. OCI-0725070 and ACI-1238993) the State of Illinois, and as of December, 2019, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Blue Waters is a joint effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Part of the work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. ECCS-1542152. K3 IS camera and support are courtesy of Gatan. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Author(s).",
year = "2021",
month = jan,
day = "18",
doi = "10.1063/5.0029979",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "118",
journal = "Applied Physics Letters",
issn = "0003-6951",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics Publising LLC",
number = "3",
}