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The microstructure in fluorite-structure oxide-based ferroelectric thin films, especially when on standard semiconductor manufacturing platforms, is poly-/nano-crystalline, which controls the functionality, performance, and reliability of the device technologies based on them. Understanding the relationships between microstructure, process, and performance for this class of materials has remained challenging. Here, a systematic approach is presented for analyzing and visualizing grains, their size distributions, and interlayer templating effects in ferroelectric thin film systems by utilizing an advanced microscopy technique, namely nanobeam electron diffraction, coupled with dark-field transmission electron microscopy and atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. A 10 nm TiN/10 nm Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO)/10 nm TiN ferroelectric heterostructure is probed. A geometric mean of the grain size in HZO of 26.8 nm ranging from 5 to 95 nm with top and bottom TiN layers having a much smaller grain size of approximately 6.8 nm ranging from 3 to 17 nm is observed. Furthermore, there is evidence of templating effects between HZO and TiN grain and domain boundaries showing [111] and [001] growth directions locally for HZO and TiN, respectively.

Decorating 1D nanostructures (e.g., wires and tubes) with metal nanoparticles serves as a hierarchical approach to integrate the functionalities of metal oxides, semiconductors, and metals. This paper examines a simple and low-temperature approach to self-assembling gold nanoparticles (Au-np)—a common catalytic material—onto silicon nanowires (SiNWs). A conformal ultra-thin film (i.e.

The mobility of defects such as dislocations controls the mechanical properties of metals. This mobility is determined both by the characteristics of the defect and the material, as well as the local stress and strain applied to the defect. Therefore, the knowledge of the stress and strain during deformation at the scale of defects is important for understanding fundamental deformation mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate a method of measuring local stresses and strains during continuous in situ deformation with a resolution of a few nanometers using nanodiffraction strain mapping. Our results demonstrate how large multidimensional data sets captured with high speed electron detectors can be analyzed in multiple ways after an in situ TEM experiment, opening the door for true multimodal analysis from a single electron scattering experiment.