Atomic-Resolution Imaging of Small Organic Molecules on Graphene

Here, we demonstrate atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) imaging of light elements in small organic molecules on graphene. We use low-dose, room-temperature, aberration-corrected STEM to image 2D monolayer and bilayer molecular crystals, followed by advanced image processing methods to create high-quality composite images from ∼10²-10⁴ individual molecules. In metalated porphyrin and phthalocyanine derivatives, these images contain an elementally sensitive contrast with up to 1.3 Å resolution─sufficient to distinguish individual carbon and nitrogen atoms. Importantly, our methods can be applied to molecules with low masses (∼0.6 kDa) and nanocrystalline domains containing just a few hundred molecules, making it possible to study systems for which large crystals cannot easily be grown. Our approach is enabled by low-background graphene substrates, which we show increase the molecules' critical dose by 2-7×. These results indicate a new route for low-dose, atomic-resolution electron microscopy imaging to solve the structures of small organic molecules.