Single Molecular Imaging by HR-TEM

Kazu Suenaga, Masanori Koshino, Zheng liu, Yuta Sato and Chuanhong Jin

Nanotube Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

Abstract: Irradiation damage is an intrinsic problem for TEM especially during the observation of organic molecules. A large number of incident electrons is required in order to achieve high resolution and high contrast for single molecular imaging. We show here several examples for individual molecular imaging by HR-TEM and discuss the reasons why it is possible even though higher dose than the known tolerant dose is required.

Key words: HR-TEM, irradiation damage, molecular imaging, fullerene, carbon nanotube