Figure 4

TEM micrographs of nanorod AuNR-7 demonstrating significant sputtering effects due to the 1.7 MeV Au ion irradiation. The top row of micrographs are selected views from the tilt series acquired in order to explore the morphological changes: (a) a crater surrounded by splash-like features; (b) an arch protruding from the surface; and (c) another splash-like feature at the boundary of a crater. The micrographs in the bottom row are frames taken from video captured during the ion irradiation (and hence at an x-tilt of +45° as described in the Methods section) showing the moments immediately before and after the formation of these features. The micrographs have been rotated such that the ion beam is incident from the right in the image plane (i.e. the y-axis in the xy-plane of the TEM). The scale marker in (a) applies to all the micrographs in the figure.