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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2020
The large surface area: volume ratios and fine grain size of nanophase materials give rise to novel and exciting structural and electrical properties that are of considerable scientific and technological interest. Using copper as a model system we have investigated the sintering of sputtered copper nanoparticles (4-20nm diameter) with a copper substrate in a novel UHV in-situ TEM.
The nanoparticles were generated in a UHV chamber built into the side of the column by sputtering in 1.5Torr Ar. They were transported into the microscope in the gas phase and deposited on an electron transparent (001) copper foil mounted on a heated support. A typical bright-field (BF) image of the sample immediately after deposition at room temperature is shown in Fig. 1. The particles have assumed a random orientation on the substrate and remain stable for many hours at room temperature. The presence of both single particles and agglomerates of particles is evident in this image and examples are labelled ‘P’ and ‘A’, respectively