Intriguing transmission electron microscopy images observed for perpendicularly oriented cylindrical microdomains of block copolymers

Abstract

Intriguing images of dislocation structures were observed by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique for hexagonally packed cylindrical microdomains in a block copolymer (polystyrene-block-polyethylenebutylene-block-polystyrene triblock copolymer) film. The polystyrene (PS) cylinders were embedded in the polyethylenebutylene (PEB) matrix and oriented perpendicular to the surface of the thin section for the TEM observations. In order to understand such strange dislocation structures, we applied an image processing technique using two-dimensional Fourier transform (FT) and inverse Fourier transform (IFT) methods. It was found that these intriguing images were not ascribed to real dislocation structures but were fake ones due to the moiré effect caused by the overlapping of hexagons with a slightly mismatched orientation. Furthermore, grain boundaries in the ultrathin section can be identified by image processing using FT and IFT methods.