Direct observation of six-membered rings in the upper and lower walls of a single-wall carbon nanotube by spherical aberration-corrected HRTEM.

Atomic arrangements of the continuous network of six-membered rings in a single graphene sheet constituting a single-wall carbon nanotube was imaged successfully by employing a spherical aberration-corrected HRTEM operated at 120 kV acceleration voltage. Utilizing two advantages of the aberration-corrected HRTEM, the images separately resolved the rings in the upper and lower walls. Such images can be considered to be the first "tomographic" atomic images taken by HRTEM. This is a striking result that changes the conventional concept of HRTEM as a projection image.