Abstract
Nanoparticle structures observed in aberration-corrected electron microscopes exhibit many types of behavior, some of which are dominated by intrinsic conditions, unrelated to the microscope environment. Some behaviors are clearly driven by the electron beam, however, and the question arises as to whether these are similar to intrinsic mechanisms, useful for understanding nanoscale behavior, or whether they should be regarded as unwanted modification of as-built specimens. We have studied a particular kind of beam-specimen interaction - plasmon dielectric forces caused by the electric fields imposed by a passing swift electron - identifying four types of forced motion, including both attractive and repulsive forces on single nanoparticles, and coalescent and non-coalescent forces in groups of two or more nanoparticles. We suggest that these forces might be useful for deliberate electron beam guided movement of nanoparticles.
We acknowledge financial support from the Basic Energy Sciences Division of the Department of Energy, Award #DE-SC0005132, the Department of Industry of the Basque Government through the ETORTEK project inano, the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaciòn through Project No. FIS2010-19609-C02-01, and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y tecnología (Mexico) through Project No. 82073.
Peer reviewed