INL, Creating value at nanoscale

Nanomedicine Super-Resolution of 2D self-organized structures

We have developed image processing SW that allow us to analyze e.g. a SEM image of graphene, and utilize the homogeneity of the structure to achieve what may be called super-resolution. When displaying the Cartesian superposition of all hexagonal environments in grapheme as well as the corresponding polar plot, one can see that the grapheme structure has statistically significant deformations compared to the ideal hexagonal structure. The reason for this is not clear, but we suggest that the underlying substrate distorts the graphene lattice. This asymmetry introduces a bend in the grapheme sheet, and statistical analysis reveals a linear distortion of 2.4%. We speculate that his may be the essential mechanism for the ubiquitous tube formation seen for many sheet forming materials in nanoscience. The distortion clearly extends the o- and p- positions away from the center, while maintaining constant distance to the remaining 4 locations. The achieved ‘super-resolution’ is approx 0.06 Å.