Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles, Princeton University, and the IBM Watson have used Hummingbird Scientific’s in-situ liquid-electrochemical cell TEM specimen holder to demonstrated the read, write, and erase behavior of Au/Cu/Ni nanocrystals under  electron-induced beam radiation in liquid solution. Their finding are published in Science Advances

The researchers were able to choose suitable electrochemical control and irradiation parameters to grow and “erase” Au/Cu/Ni nanoclusters under electron beam-induced reduction of metal ions in solution. Their findings could potentially provide better alternative to conventional e-beam lithographic technique by allowing site-specific deposition of multiple materials with a few-nanometer precision.

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Reference:

Jeung Hun Park, Daniel A. Steingart, Suneel Kodambaka, and Frances M. Ross ” Electrochemical electron beam lithography: Write, read, and erase metallic nanocrystals on demand”, Science Advances, 3, e1700234 (2017)