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Atomic Structure of β-Tantalum Nanocrystallites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2005

Karsten Tillmann ,
Andreas Thust ,
Andreas Gerber ,
Martin P. Weides  and
Knut Urban
Karsten Tillmann
Affiliation:
Ernst Ruska-Centrum für Mikroskopie und Spektroskopie mit Elektronen, D-52425 Jülich, Germany Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Andreas Thust
Affiliation:
Ernst Ruska-Centrum für Mikroskopie und Spektroskopie mit Elektronen, D-52425 Jülich, Germany Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Andreas Gerber
Affiliation:
Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Martin P. Weides
Affiliation:
Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Knut Urban
Affiliation:
Ernst Ruska-Centrum für Mikroskopie und Spektroskopie mit Elektronen, D-52425 Jülich, Germany Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
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Abstract

The structural properties of β-phase tantalum nanocrystallites prepared by room temperature magnetron sputter deposition on amorphous carbon substrates are investigated at atomic resolution. For these purposes spherical aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy is applied in tandem with the numerical retrieval of the exit-plane wavefunction as obtained from a through-focus series of experimental micrographs. We demonstrate that recent improvements in the resolving power of electron microscopes enable the imaging of the atomic structure of β-tantalum with column spacings of solely 0.127 nm with directly interpretable contrast features. For the first time ever, we substantiate the existence of grain boundaries of 30° tilt type in β-Ta whose formation may be well explained by atomic agglomeration processes taking place during sputter deposition.

Keywords

β-tantalummagnetron sputter depositionthin filmsgrain boundarieshigh-resolution transmission electron microscopyspherical aberration correctionexit-plane wavefunction reconstruction
Type
Materials Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 11 , Issue 6 , December 2005 , pp. 534 - 544
Copyright
© 2005 Microscopy Society of America

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References

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