The results have now been published in the journal of
The chemistry of typical silver compounds is extremely challenging. They are difficult to evaporate and are highly reactive. During the heating in the injection unit, they tend to chemically react with the reservoir walls. Along their path from the reservoir to the tip of the needle, these compounds freeze again at the slightest drop in temperature and obstruct the tube. "It took us a lot of time and effort to design a new injection unit and find a suitable silver compound", explains HZB physicist Dr. Katja Höflich, who carried out the experiments as part of a Helmholtz Postdoctoral Fellowship at EMPA. "Finally, we managed it. The compound silver dimethylbutyrate remains stable and dissociates only in the focus of the electron beam." Höflich and her colleagues used the EBID method to create sharply defined areas of tiny silver nanocrystals for the first time.
Writing with the electron beam
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-electron-beamnow-silver.html#jCp
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