Investigation of Energetic Materials and Plasmonic Nanostructures Using Advanced Electron Microscopic Techniques

Investigation of laser-matter interaction has been an important research topic which is closely related to applications in various fields including industry, military, electronics, photonics, etc. With the advent of ultrafast transmission electron microscope (UTEM), in situ investigation of the interaction between pulsed laser and nanostructured materials becomes accessible, with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Here, we studied two categories of materials with the help of UTEM, namely, energetic materials and plasmonic nanostructures. The results demonstrate that UTEM provides a novel and convenient way for the investigation the structural and morphological change of energetic materials under external stimuli at nanoscale. Also, UTEM makes it possible to visualize the light-induced welding between plasmonic nanostructures at real time, which helps to reveal more details about the mechanisms involved. Furthermore, we studied the formation of some novel structures by combing different gold and silver nanostructure.