Lecture 3 Brief Overview of Traditional Microscopes

Optical Microscope; Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM); Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM); Comparison with scanning probe microscope (SPM)

General philosophy

Human beings use two kinds of means to gauge objectives: Seeing --- through eyes (light) optical microscope electronic microscope (higher resolution due to short wavelength); Touching --- through hands (probe) SPM.
Converting wavelength (nm) to electron energy (eV): 1240.7/(nm), for example, a 500 nm light corresponds to 1240.7/500 = 2.48 eV

Principles of an optical microscope

Development of microscope takes us back to 400 years ago

Robert Hookes "Micrographia" (1665)

A hair knot

Room dusts

Red blood cell

Flu virus

Organic nanobelts with strong emission

Advantages and Disadvantages of Optical Microscope

Advantages: Direct imaging with no need of sample pre-treatment, the only microscopy for real color imaging. Fast, and adaptable to all kinds of sample systems, from gas, to liquid, and to solid sample systems, in any shapes or geometries. Easy to be integrated with digital camera systems for data storage and analysis. Disadvantages: Low resolution, usually down to only sub-micron or a few hundreds of nanometers, mainly due to the light diffraction limit.

Electronic Microscope for higher resolution

Resolution limit of optical microscopes is due to the light diffraction; roughly optical resolution can be estimated as wavelength /2NA (NA is the numerical aperture of lens, usually ~ 1.0): for white light, average wavelength is around 500 nm, the best resolution is thus a few hundreds nm. Decreasing the wavelength is the way to improve the resolution, though nobody would deal with UV light. Electron wave is a unique medium that can be used in imaging. By accelerating the electrons into high energy beam (via high voltage), the wavelength thus created is far shorter than white light. For example, for an electron beam produced from a 20 kV gun, the wavelength is only 1240.7/20,000 (eV) = 0.06 nm = 0.6 , corresponding to a resolution limit of /2 = 0.3 --- theoretically, it can be used to image a species as small as 0.3 .

What is SEM?

In scanning electron microscopy (SEM) an electron beam is focused into a small probe and is rastered across the surface of a specimen. Several interactions with the sample that result in the emission of electrons or photons occur as the electrons penetrate the surface. These emitted particles can be collected with the appropriate detector to yield valuable information about the material. The most immediate result of observation in the scanning electron microscope is that it displays the shape of the sample. The resolution is determined by beam diameter.

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

Electron microscope follows the same ideas of optical microscope, but uses electrons instead of light; Lens here are not the optical materials (like glass), but electrical field.

Detailed working diagram of SEM

Basic components of SEM

Electron optics: 1. condenser lens --- focusing the electron beam to the objective lens. 2. objective lens --- responsible for the size of electron beam impinging on sample surface 3. electromagnetic coils --- responsible for driving the raster scanning by deflecting the electron beam. Sample and sample holder: 1. size --- centimeters. 2. rotation --- sample can be rotated freely at three dimensions, x, y, z, to achieve imaging at all directions. 3. conductivity --- required for sample to be measured. For non-conducting samples, like biological specimens, metallic coating is required.

Transducers (detectors): 1. scintillation device --- doped glass or plastic target that emits a cascade of visible photons when struck by electrons. 2. semiconductor transducers --- when struck by electrons, electron-hole pairs are generated, thus increasing the conductivity.

Basic signals of SEM

The electrons interact with the atoms at or close to sample surface produces signals that contain information about the sample's surface topography, composition, and other properties such as electrical conductivity. The types of signals produced by an SEM include secondary electrons, back-scattered electrons (BSE), characteristic X-rays, light (cathodoluminescence), specimen current and transmitted electrons. Secondary electrons: they are electrons generated as ionization products. They are called 'secondary' because they are generated by other radiation (the primary radiation). This radiation can be in the form of ions, electrons, or photons with sufficiently high energy, i.e. exceeding the ionization potential. Secondary electron detectors are common in all SEMs. A SEM with secondary electron imaging or SEI can produce very high-resolution images of a sample surface, revealing details less than 1 nm in size. Back-scattered electrons (BSE): they are beam electrons that are reflected from the sample by elastic scattering. BSE are often used in analytical SEM along with the spectra made from the characteristic X-rays. Because the intensity of the BSE signal is strongly related to the atomic number (Z) of the specimen, BSE images can provide information about the distribution of different elements in the sample. Characteristic X-rays: they are emitted when the electron beam removes an inner shell electron from the sample, causing a higher energy electron to fill the shell and release energy. These characteristic X-rays are used to identify the composition and measure the abundance of elements in the sample.

Brief schemes showing how SEM works

Brief schemes showing how SEM works

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

Advantages and Disadvantages of SEM

Advantages: Almost all kinds of samples, conducting and non-conducting (stain coating needed); Based on surface interaction --- no requirement of electron-transparent sample. Imaging at all directions through x-y-z (3D) rotation of sample. Disadvantages: Low resolution, usually above a few tens of nanometers. Usually required surface stain-coating with metals for electron conducting.

Note: Specialized SEM works directly on non-conductive samples

Nonconductive specimens tend to charge when scanned by the electron beam, and especially in secondary electron imaging mode, this causes scanning faults and other image artifacts. So, for usual SEM imaging, the samples must be coated with an ultrathin coating of electrically-conducting material, commonly gold. However, nonconducting specimens may be imaged uncoated using specialized SEM instrumentation such as the "Environmental SEM" (ESEM) or field emission gun (FEG) SEMs operated at low voltage, and low vacuum. In a regular SEM, the electron source (gun) is a tungsten filament cathode. At the Physics Department of UU, there is a FEI NanoNova SEM, with a field emitter electron source. Feature sizes of 2nm can be resolved. There is a low vacuum feature which allows imaging of non-conducting samples (biological samples need no special preparation).

SEM images conducting and semiconducting materials

ZnO nano-wires

Carbon nano-tubes

TEM principle

Nanobelts

SEM images of (a) ZnO nanobelts and (b) the ZnS nanobelts converted through chemical reaction with H2S.
Z. L. Wang, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 2004, Vol. 55: 159-196

Nanosprings

Nanosprings and nanorings of piezoelectric nanobelts. (a c) SEM images of the as-synthesized single-crystal ZnO nanobelts, showing helical nanosprings. The typical width of the nanobelt is 30 nm, and pitch distance is rather uniform. (d) TEM image of a helical nanospring made of a single-crystal ZnO nanobelt. (e) The structure model of the ZnO nanobelt.
Z. L. Wang, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 2004, Vol. 55: 159-196

Nanosaw

SEM image of comb-like nanostructure of ZnO, which is the result of surface polarization induced growth.
Z. L. Wang, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 2004, Vol. 55: 159-196

Fabrication by simple injection into a poor solvent

O O N O O N O O

Kaushik Balakrishnan, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127(2005) 10496-10497

Twisted Nanobelts

Kaushik Balakrishnan, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127(2005) 10496-10497

Seeded growth of ultralong nanobelts

O O O O O N O O N O

Yanke Che et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 (2007) 7234-7235

Nanofibers fabricated from an amphiphilic molecules

O N O O O O

Nanofibers with anhydride moieties dominant on surface

Efficient fluorescence sensing of amines, -NH2

O N O O O O

Blowing amine vapor

SEM images of bio-species

The head of a mosquito is mostly eye. The eyes are compound eyes, made up of many tiny lenses.

Claw of a Black Widow spider. The claw has three hooks, the middle one used to work the silk.

Walking on water

The non-wetting leg of a water strider. a, Typical side view of a maximal-depth dimple (4.38+/0.02 mm) just before the leg pierces the water surface. Inset, water droplet on a leg; this makes a contact angle of 167.6 +/- 4.4. b, c, Scanning electron microscope images of a leg showing numerous oriented spindly micro-setae (b) and the fine nanoscale grooved structures on a seta (c). Scale bars: b, 20 m; c, 200 nm.

Lei Jiang, Nature 432, p36.

What is TEM?

In transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a beam of highly focused electrons are directed toward a thinned sample (<200 nm). Normally no scanning required --- helps the high resolution, compared to SEM.

These highly energetic incident electrons interact with the atoms in the sample producing characteristic radiation and particles providing information for materials characterization.

Information is obtained from both deflected and non-deflected transmitted electrons, backscattered and secondary electrons, and emitted photons.

Advantages and Disadvantages of TEM

Advantages: High resolution, as small as 0.2 nm. Direct imaging of crystalline lattice. Delineate the defects inside the sample. No metallic stain-coating needed, thus convenient for strucutral imaging of organic materials, Electron diffraction technique: phase identification, structure and symmetry determination, lattice parameter measurement, disorder and defect identification Disadvantages: To prepare an electron-transparent sample from the bulk is difficult (due to the conductivity or electron density, and sample thickness).

TEM and its principles

Hitachi H9000 UHR TEM: a dedicated HREM TEM, capable of 0.18nm point resolution operating at 300kV

Detector: CCD (2D imaging)

TEM images: nanobelt

(a) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of the as-synthesized ZnO nanobelts. (b) High-resolution TEM image recorded with the incident electron perpendicular to the top surface of the nanobelt.
Z. L. Wang, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, Vol. 55: 159-196

TEM images: nanobelt

(a) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of the as-synthesized SnO2 nanobelts. (b) High-resolution TEM image recorded with the incident electron perpendicular to the top surface of the nanobelt.
Z. L. Wang, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, Vol. 55: 159-196

TEM images: nanobelt

(a) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of the as-synthesized lshaped In2O3 nanobelts. The inset is the electron diffraction pattern recorded from the nanobelt. (b) Highresolution TEM image recorded with the incident electron perpendicular to the top surface of the nanobelt.

Z. L. Wang, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, Vol. 55: 159-196

TEM images: nanotube

Imaging single-wall carbon nanotube

Jim Zuos lab at UIUC
Science, 300, 1419-1421 (2003)

TEM imaging of graphene

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/graphene-breakthrough-could-usher-future-electronics

Highly Uniform Nanobelts by TEM

Kaushik Balakrishnan, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127(2005) 10496-10497

E-diffraction reveals stacking conformation

Kaushik Balakrishnan, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127(2005) 10496-10497

Improved fabrication of single, uniform nanofibrils: deposited from hot toluene solution

~ 5 nm

Parallel alignment forms fibril arrays.

Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM)

Double functions: scanning and probing. Scanning: piezo raster 2D (X-Y) scanning; Probing: sharp tip mounted to a Z-scanner.

Comparison between traditional optical and electron microscopes and SPM

probe Mechanism Sample
High vacuum chamber, Strict sample pretreatment (e.g. conducting stain) required

Resolution

Traditional

Light/electron

Using properties of waves: diffraction, deflection, scattering

m, good for X-Y lateral imaging

SPM

Tip

Using interaction between tip and sample: mechanic, electrostatic, meganetic.

Usually under ambient conditions, Highly flexible with other techniques

nm, good for Z-height measurement, thus topography imaging

Note: SPM cannot replace electron microscopes, but complementary each other.