An ultrahigh-resolution soft x-ray microscope for quantitative analysis of chemically heterogeneous nanomaterials

David A Shapiro; Sergey Babin; Richard S Celestre; Weilun Chao; Raymond P Conley; Peter Denes; Bjoern Enders; Pablo Enfedaque; Susan James; John M Joseph; Harinarayan Krishnan; Stefano Marchesini; Krishna Muriki; Kasra Nowrouzi; Sharon R Oh; Howard Padmore; Tony Warwick; Lee Yang; Valeriy V Yashchuk; Young-Sang Yu; Jiangtao Zhao

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abc4904

An ultrahigh-resolution soft x-ray microscope for quantitative analysis of chemically heterogeneous nanomaterials

Sci Adv. 2020 Dec 16;6(51):eabc4904. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abc4904. Print 2020 Dec.

Authors

David A Shapiro¹, Sergey Babin², Richard S Celestre³, Weilun Chao⁴, Raymond P Conley⁵, Peter Denes³, Bjoern Enders^{3

6

7}, Pablo Enfedaque⁸, Susan James⁹, John M Joseph¹⁰, Harinarayan Krishnan^{3

8}, Stefano Marchesini^{3

8}, Krishna Muriki⁹, Kasra Nowrouzi^{3

11}, Sharon R Oh⁴, Howard Padmore³, Tony Warwick³, Lee Yang¹⁰, Valeriy V Yashchuk³, Young-Sang Yu³, Jiangtao Zhao^{3

12}

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. dashapiro@lbl.gov.
² aBeam Technologies Inc., Hayward, CA 94541, USA.
³ Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁴ Center for X-ray Optics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁵ Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁷ National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁸ Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁹ Information Technology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹⁰ Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹¹ Advanced Quantum Testbed, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹² University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.

Abstract

The analysis of chemical states and morphology in nanomaterials is central to many areas of science. We address this need with an ultrahigh-resolution scanning transmission soft x-ray microscope. Our instrument provides multiple analysis tools in a compact assembly and can achieve few-nanometer spatial resolution and high chemical sensitivity via x-ray ptychography and conventional scanning microscopy. A novel scanning mechanism, coupled to advanced x-ray detectors, a high-brightness x-ray source, and high-performance computing for analysis provide a revolutionary step forward in terms of imaging speed and resolution. We present x-ray microscopy with 8-nm full-period spatial resolution and use this capability in conjunction with operando sample environments and cryogenic imaging, which are now routinely available. Our multimodal approach will find wide use across many fields of science and facilitate correlative analysis of materials with other types of probes.

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