Atomic-focuser imaging in electron nanodiffraction from carbon nanoshells

When nanodiffraction patterns are obtained by transmission through the top and bottom walls of near-spherical, hollow carbon nano-shells, using the focused probe of a STEM instrument, a graphitic crystal in one wall may act as an atomic focuser to produce high-resolution images of small regions of the other wall within the central beam and the diffraction disks of the nanodiffraction pattern. A theoretical analysis of the imaging process is given. Images showing one- and two-dimensional periodicities, with fringe spacings as small as 0.124 nm, and also images showing non-periodic features have been obtained from carbon nanoshells having diameters of the order of 100 nm.