Electron microscopy of bismuth building blocks for self-assembled nanowires

Nanowires can be fabricated from bismuth nanoclusters. The structure of bismuth nanoclusters of 40–60 nm diameter has been observed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and matched to multislice image simulations for B = [−2, 2, 0, −1] and B = [1, 0, −1, 0]. The hexagonal structure matches that of bulk bismuth embedded in a 5 nm thick shell of β-Bi2O3.