Events

Prof. Botton - Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy with High Spatial and High Energy Resolution (Materials Research Network Seminar)

Date: Wednesday 1 December 2021 15:00 - 16:00

Location: teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_N2RmNzZiZD...

G.A. Botton

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4M1, Canada,

Canadian Light Source, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada gbotton@mcmaster.ca

Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is an invaluable technique to study the detailed structure and the chemical state of materials at unprecedented spatial resolution. Today, this technique is used to characterize nanoscale materials used in a myriad of applications from energy storage and conversion, to solid-state devices and biomaterials interfaces. This technique also has the potential to provide insight into much more fundamental problems where information on local unoccupied states (at atomic sites) and site occupancy are of fundamental importance.

In this presentation, I describe recent developments in electron energy loss spectroscopy to probe the changes in bonding and coordination of atoms using quantitative measurements of the energy loss spectra [1,2]. I will show that, with atomic resolved EELS, it is possible to determine ordering of cations in oxides [3] and changes in bonding at interfaces, consistent with modifications in the coordination of interface atoms. I will highlight how atomic resolved experiments with EELS near-edge fine structures (the equivalent of XANES) can be used to systematically study the local valence in high-T superconductors [4], extract the localized hole concentration in superconducting chain-ladder compounds [5] and even probe the local electronic structure of energy storage materials [6].

Finally, I will show how EELS can provide exquisite details on the plasmonic response of simple and very complex metallic nanostructures [7].

[1] G.Z. Zhu, et al. Nature, 490, 384, (2012) [2] M. Bugnet, et al., Phys. Rev. B 88, 201107(R) (2013), and Phys Rev. B, 93, 020102 (2016) [3] S. Turner, et al., Chem. Mater. 24, 1904-1909 (2012)

[4] N. Gauquelin, et al., Nature Communications 5, 4275 (2014) [5] M. Bugnet, et al., Science Advances 2016; 2:e1501652 (2016). [6] H. S. Liu et al. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 18, 29064-29075. (2016) and H. Liu et al, ACS Nano, 12 (3), pp 2708–2718 (2018) DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b08945

[7] D. Rossouw, et al., Nano Letters 11, 1499-1504 (2011); D. Rossouw, G.A. Botton, Phys. Rev. Letters 110, 066801 (2013); S. J. Barrow et al, Nano Letters 14, 3799-3808. (2014); EP Bellido, et al., ACS Photonics, 3, 428-433 (2016), and ACS Photonics, 4, 1558-1565 (2017); E.P. Bellido, et al., Self-similarity of plasmon edge modes on Koch fractal antennas, ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b05554), (2017). Bicket, IC; Bellido, EP; McRae, DM; Lagugne-Labarthet, F; Botton, GA; Hierarchical Plasmon Resonances in Fractal Structures, ACS Photonics, 7, 1246-1254, (2020), DoI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.0c00110, Kapetanovic, V; Bicket, IC; Lazar, S; Lagos, MJ; Botton, GA; Tunable Infrared Plasmon Response of Lithographic Sn-doped Indium Oxide Nanostructures, Advanced Optical Materials, 8, Article number 2001024, (2020), DoI: 10.1002/adom.202001024; Mousavi, MSS; Bicket, IC; Bellido, EP; Soleymani, L; Botton, GA; Electron energy-loss spectroscopy of surface plasmon activity in wrinkled gold structures, Journal of Chemical Physics, 153, Article number 224703 (2020), DoI: 10.1063/5.0031469