Development of a gas injection/specimen heating holder for use with transmission electron microscope

A new gas injection/specimen heating holder is developed for the purpose of in situ observation of gas reaction of materials at high temperatures in a transmission electron microscope at near-atomic resolution. A fine tungsten wire is employed as a heating element of the holder and a battery is used as the power source. Gas was injected onto specimens in the form of particles lying on the heating element via a nozzle. The maximum pressure near specimens was middle of 10(-2) Pa, while the pressure in the electron-gun chamber was kept to 2 x 10(-4) Pa. This gas injection/specimen heating holder was applied to observe solid-gas reactions. The reactions observed include oxidation of pure In into In2O3, reduction of SiO2 into Si and re-oxidation of Si into SiO2.