In situ electron holographic study of Ionic liquid.

Investigation of the effect of electron irradiation on ionic liquid (IL) droplets using electron holography revealed that electron irradiation changed the electrostatic potential around the IL. The potential for low electron flux irradiation (0.5 × 10(17)e/m(2)s) was almost constant as a function of time (up to 180 min). For higher electron flux irradiation (2 × 10(17)e/m(2)s), the potential increased exponentially for a certain time, reflecting the charging effect and then leveled off. The IL was found to be changed from liquid to solid state after a significant increase in the electrostatic potential due to electron irradiation.

Electron holographic visualization of collective motion of electrons through electric field variation.

This study demonstrates the accumulation of electron-induced secondary electrons by utilizing a simple geometrical configuration of two branches of a charged insulating biomaterial. The collective motion of these secondary electrons between the branches has been visualized by analyzing the reconstructed amplitude images obtained using in situ electron holography. In order to understand the collective motion of secondary electrons, the trajectories of these electrons around the branches have also been simulated by taking into account the electric field around the charged branches on the basis of Maxwell's equations.

Observation of the magnetic flux and three-dimensional structure of skyrmion lattices by electron holography.

Skyrmions are nanoscale spin textures that are viewed as promising candidates as information carriers in future spintronic devices. Skyrmions have been observed using neutron scattering and microscopy techniques. Real-space imaging using electrons is a straightforward way to interpret spin configurations by detecting the phase shifts due to electromagnetic fields. Here, we report the first observation by electron holography of the magnetic flux and the three-dimensional spin configuration of a skyrmion lattice in Fe(0.5)Co(0.5)Si thin samples. The magnetic flux inside and outside a skyrmion was directly visualized and the handedness of the magnetic flux flow was found to be dependent on the direction of the applied magnetic field. The electron phase shifts φ in the helical and skyrmion phases were determined using samples with a stepped thickness t (from 55 nm to 510 nm), revealing a linear relationship (φ = 0.00173 t). The phase measurements were used to estimate the three-dimensional structures of both the helical and skyrmion phases, demonstrating that electron holography is a useful tool for studying complex magnetic structures and for three-dimensional, real-space mapping of magnetic fields.

Advanced split-illumination electron holography without Fresnel fringes.

Advanced split-illumination electron holography was developed by employing two biprisms in the illuminating system to split an electron wave into two coherent waves and two biprisms in the imaging system to overlap them. A focused image of an upper condenser-biprism filament was formed on the sample plane, and all other filaments were placed in its shadow. This developed system makes it possible to obtain precise reconstructed object waves without modulations due to Fresnel fringes, in addition to holograms of distant objects from reference waves.

Improvement of the accuracy of phase observation by modification of phase-shifting electron holography.

We found that the accuracy of the phase observation in phase-shifting electron holography is strongly restricted by time variations of mean intensity and contrast of the holograms. A modified method was developed for correcting these variations. Experimental results demonstrated that the modification enabled us to acquire a large number of holograms, and as a result, the accuracy of the phase observation has been improved by a factor of 5.

Three-dimensional reconstructions of electrostatic potential distributions with 1.5-nm resolution using off-axis electron holography.

Three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction experiments were carried out by observing high-resolution 3D electrostatic potential distributions of Pt nanoparticles using off-axis electron holographic tomography. These Pt nanoparticles were mounted on the surfaces of amorphous silicon pillars. In order to realize high-resolution observation, we developed a mechanically stable 3D specimen holder with small specimen drifts and vibrations. From the 3D electrostatic potential distribution data of Pt nanoparticles (2.0 nm in diameter), we obtained the resolution of 1.5 nm.

Magnetization distribution of magnetic vortex of amorphous FeSiB investigated by electron holography and computer simulation.

The three-dimensional spin structure of the magnetic vortex of FeSiB, an amorphous soft magnetic material, was investigated by holography observation and computer simulation. Magnetization distribution in the neighborhood of the vortex center was estimated from the phase distribution obtained by holography observation. To confirm this magnetization distribution, sample-tilting experiments were performed: when the sample was tilted with respect to the electron beam direction, the phase-image center was found to shift along the tilting axis. Finite-element computer simulation was carried out to estimate the amount of shifts of the phase-image center in the sample tilting from the experimental magnetization distributions in the no sample-tilting conditions. We found that the simulated shifts of the phase-image center were in good agreement with those in the sample-tilting experiment, thus confirming the magnetization distribution near the vortex center obtained by holography observation.

Development of dedicated STEM with high stability.

We developed a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope with high-stability. The mechanical and electronic stabilities of the microscope were substantially improved, e.g. the specimen drift rate was found to be <0.2 nm min(-1). The Fourier transform of an ADF image showed spots of 0.105 nm at an acceleration voltage of 200 kV without spherical aberration corrector. The stabilized STEM instrument allows us to acquire distortion-free STEM images and high-signal to noise ratio analyses. We have shown the outline of the instrument and preliminary results.