Time-resolved high-resolution electron microscopy of nanometer-scale electron beam processing of PbTe films
Various kinds of nanometer scale processings are required to produce advanced materials, for example, nano-structured electric devices. Electron beam processing at nanometer scale using STEM and TEM, such as drilling and line-writing, is recently interested as a most useful method. Details of structural change during the processing should be elucidated at atomic resolution in order to establish the processing. In the present work we have processed lead telluride (PbTe) films with nanometer electron beam in a high-resolution transmission electron microscope and in-situ observed the variation of atomic arrangements during the processing.PbTe of 99.99% was vacuum-deposited on air-cleaved (001) surfaces of sodium chloride at room temperature. Time-resolved high-resolution electron microscopy was carried out at room temperature using a 200-kV electron microscope (JEOL, JEM2010) equipped with a high sensitive TV camera and a video tape recorder. The spatial resolution of thesystem was 0.2 nm at 200 kV and the time resolution was 1/60 s. Electron beam irradiation density was 120 A/cm2 at the processing and the observation.