Mapping and Controlling Liquid Layer Thickness in Liquid-Phase (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscopy

Liquid-Phase (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscopy (LP-(S)TEM) has become an essential technique to monitor nanoscale materials processes in liquids in real-time. Due to the pressure difference between the liquid and the microscope vacuum, bending of the silicon nitride (SiN_x) membrane windows generally occurs. This causes a spatially varying liquid layer thickness that makes interpretation of LP-(S)TEM results difficult due to a locally varying achievable resolution and diffusion limitations. To mediate these difficulties, it is shown: 1) how to quantitatively map liquid layer thickness for any liquid at less than 0.01 e⁻ Å⁻² total dose; 2) how to dynamically modulate the liquid thickness by tuning the internal pressure in the liquid cell, co-determined by the Laplace pressure and the external pressure. It is demonstrated that reproducible inward bulging of the window membranes can be realized, leading to an ultra-thin liquid layer in the central window area for high-resolution imaging. Furthermore, it is shown that the liquid thickness can be dynamically altered in a programmed way, thereby potentially overcoming the diffusion limitations towards achieving bulk solution conditions. The presented approaches provide essential ways to measure and dynamically adjust liquid thickness in LP-(S)TEM experiments, enabling new experiment designs and better control of solution chemistry.