UC Berkeley

The radiation-sensitive nature of halide perovskites has hindered structural studies at the atomic scale. We overcome this obstacle by applying low dose-rate in-line holography, which combines aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy with exit-wave reconstruction. This technique successfully yields the genuine atomic structure of ultrathin two-dimensional CsPbBr₃ halide perovskites, and a quantitative structure determination was achieved atom column by atom column using the phase information of the reconstructed exit-wave function without causing electron beam-induced sample alterations. An extraordinarily high image quality enables an unambiguous structural analysis of coexisting high-temperature and low-temperature phases of CsPbBr₃ in single particles. On a broader level, our approach offers unprecedented opportunities to better understand halide perovskites at the atomic level as well as other radiation-sensitive materials.