電子顕微鏡法と電子分光法によるナノチューブ内一次元結晶「ピーポッド」の構造解析

抄録

Electron microscopy and spectroscopy with the single-atom sensitivity enables us to obtain a direct image of the intra-molecular structure and chemical identification of individual metallofullerenes encapsulated inside single-walled carbon nanotubes, so-called peapods. By a comparison of high resolution images with a simulation to extract the relative atom positions for encaged metal atom in each molecule, distribution of molecular orientation and its interaction between adjacent molecules in metallofullerene-peapods have been statistically analyzed. Moreover the techniques described here demonstrates the possibilities to observe individual chemical reaction inside carbon nanotubes.