Creation of Nanocrystals Through a Solid-Solid Phase Transition
Induced by an STM Tip
Jian Zhang,
*
Jie Liu,
*
Jin Lin Huang,
Philip Kim,
Charles M. Lieber
A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) was used to fabricate T-phase
tantalum diselenide (TaSe2) nanocrystals with
sizes ranging from 7 to more than 100 nanometers within the surface
layer of 2H-TaSe2 crystals at liquid helium temperature.
Atomic-resolution images elucidate the structural changes between T-
and H-phase regions and were used to develop an atomic model that
describes a pathway for the production of T-phase nanocrystals from the
H-phase crystal precursor through a solid-solid phase transition. The
size-dependent properties of these nanocrystals may lead to improved
understanding of the physics of charge density waves in small
structures.
J. Zhang, J. Liu, J. L. Huang, Department of Chemistry, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
P. Kim and C. M. Lieber, Department of Chemistry and Division of
Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
*
These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed.
