"Transparent" membranes

 

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splat-cooled nickel with graphene bubbles and rifts
Interesting features appear when carbon-saturated molten metal is splat-cooled, in situ, during the usual curved kish synthesis procedure, as this nickel sample was.  The fine lines running down the flank of this sample are rifts produced by azimuthal stress when the the molten metal encountered the vacuum chamber floor.  Closer to the top of the sample, the negative stress produced dark spots and even bubbles.

 

 

 

torn graphite drum
In this image, a rift encounters one of the dark spots.  The dark area is not a region of thicker graphite, but a hole that is only thinly covered by a graphite membrane.  The membrane is thin enough to serve as a window for 30 keV electrons.  This veiled pockmark feature appears routinely on splat-cooled iron, nickel and cobalt samples.

 

 

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graphene bubbles
This incomplete graphene bubble has a polygonal hole, suggesting the material is crystalline, in spite of its curvature.  A certain cobalt fragment shows similar evidence of crystalline graphene draped over a smoothly curved surface.
This electron-transparent graphene membrane has origami-like folds, which are evidently strong enough to withstand delamination.
This "bubble wrap" structure delaminated from a splat-cooled iron sample.
Some freestanding membranes are round.  Notice the blister that is visible through the bubble.  Bubbles like this have been precipitated from iron, nickel and cobalt.  A formation mechanism is proposed on the splat-cooling page.

 

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