Electron Beam Induced Artifacts During in situ TEM Deformation of Nanostructured Metals.

ABSTRACT: A critical assumption underlying in situ transmission electron microscopy studies is that the electron beam (e-beam) exposure does not fundamentally alter the intrinsic deformation behavior of the materials being probed. Here, we show that e-beam exposure causes increased dislocation activation and marked stress relaxation in aluminum and gold films spanning a range of thicknesses (80-400 nanometers) and grain sizes (50-220 nanometers). Furthermore, the e-beam induces anomalous sample necking, which unusually depends more on the e-beam diameter than intensity. Notably, the stress relaxation in both aluminum and gold occurs at beam energies well below their damage thresholds. More remarkably, the stress relaxation and/or sample necking is significantly more pronounced at lower accelerating

SUBMITTER: Sarkar R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4639785 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature