Publication Date:
2015-10-23
Description:
Nature Materials 14, 1099 (2015). doi:10.1038/nmat4426 Authors: Rui Xu, Chien-Chun Chen, Li Wu, M. C. Scott, W. Theis, Colin Ophus, Matthias Bartels, Yongsoo Yang, Hadi Ramezani-Dakhel, Michael R. Sawaya, Hendrik Heinz, Laurence D. Marks, Peter Ercius & Jianwei Miao Crystallography, the primary method for determining the 3D atomic positions in crystals, has been fundamental to the development of many fields of science. However, the atomic positions obtained from crystallography represent a global average of many unit cells in a crystal. Here, we report, for the first time, the determination of the 3D coordinates of thousands of individual atoms and a point defect in a material by electron tomography with a precision of ∼19 pm, where the crystallinity of the material is not assumed. From the coordinates of these individual atoms, we measure the atomic displacement field and the full strain tensor with a 3D resolution of ∼1 nm3 and a precision of ∼10−3, which are further verified by density functional theory calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. The ability to precisely localize the 3D coordinates of individual atoms in materials without assuming crystallinity is expected to find important applications in materials science, nanoscience, physics, chemistry and biology.
Print ISSN:
1476-1122
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4660
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
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Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
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Natural Sciences in General
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Physics
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