Publication date: 15th December 2025
Electron ptychography — a computational phase-contrast method that reconstructs the sample’s transmission function from overlapping scanning-diffraction patterns — is rapidly becoming a practical tool for resolving the atomic structure of complex nanomaterials far beyond conventional depth-of-focus and coherence limits. For materials synthesis and nanoscale structure–property research, this capability opens a new window into interfaces, confined phases, defect networks, and metastable structural motifs that govern functional behavior.
We present three recent advances that make 3D ptychographic imaging more broadly applicable to real nanomaterial systems. First, using tomographic 4D-STEM tilt-series acquisition, we resolve the atomic lattice of a Zr–Te phase confined in double-wall carbon nanotubes, demonstrating that ptychographic single-slice tomography can identify intricate polytypes and nanoscale structural distortions relevant to templated growth. Second, a multi-slice reconstruction coupled with joint tomographic alignment overcomes the depth-of-focus barrier of conventional linear tomography, enabling atomic-resolution imaging across tens of nanometers of heterogeneous material.
Third, we introduce an end-to-end reconstruction framework that incorporates all physical effects to achieve near-isotropic 0.8 Å 3D resolution even under extreme missing-wedge conditions. This makes it feasible to recover the internal structure of nanoparticles, nanowires, and confined phases from sparsely sampled or limited-angle datasets, as often required for beam-sensitive or geometrically constrained materials.
Finally, we will report on our efforts to extend ptychography into the in-situ regime by tracking the growth behavior of Ir/Ir-oxide nanoparticles inside ~60 nm-thick liquid cells. Imaging small nanocrystals in thick liquid with lattice resolution enables direct observation of nucleation pathways, redox dynamics, and morphological evolution under realistic electrochemical and synthesis conditions, connecting atomic-scale structure to functional performance.
Together, these developments turn 3D electron ptychography — in both ex-situ and in-situ modes — into a powerful platform for discovering how atomic arrangements shape the emergent properties of modern nanomaterials.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.