2011/05/09 by Jani Kotakoski, J. Kotakoski, J. C. Meyer +9 · 3 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Graphene research and applications #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.83.245420
published as Phys. Rev. B 83, 245420 (2011)
arxiv created 2011/05/09 · openalex publication_date 2011/06/23 · arxiv updated 2011/06/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Observations of topological defects associated with Stone-Wales-type transformations (i.e., bond rotations) in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images of carbon nanostructures are at odds with the equilibrium thermodynamics of these systems. Here, by combining aberration-corrected HRTEM experiments and atomistic simulations, we show that such defects can be formed by single electron impacts and, remarkably, at electron energies below the threshold for atomic displacements. We further study the mechanisms of irradiation-driven bond rotations and explain why electron irradiation at moderate electron energies (~100 keV) tends to amorphize rather than perforate graphene. We also show via simulations that Stone-Wales defects can appear in curved graphitic structures due to incomplete recombination of irradiation-induced Frenkel defects, similar to formation of Wigner-type defects in silicon.