Ultrathin silicon nitride microchip for in situ/operando microscopy with high spatial resolution and spectral visibility

Utilization of in situ/operando methods with broad beams and localized probes has accelerated our understanding of fluid-surface interactions in recent decades. The closed-cell microchips based on silicon nitride (SiNx) are widely used as "nanoscale reactors" inside the high-vacuum electron microscopes. However, the field has been stalled by the high background scattering from encapsulation (typically ~100 nanometers) that severely limits the figures of merit for in situ performance. This adverse effect is particularly notorious for gas cell as the sealing membranes dominate the overall scattering, thereby blurring any meaningful signals and limiting the resolution. Herein, we show that by adopting the back-supporting strategy, encapsulating membrane can be reduced substantially, down to ~10 nanometers while maintaining structural resiliency. The systematic gas cell work demonstrates advantages in figures of merit for hitherto the highest spatial resolution and spectral visibility. Furthermore, this strategy can be broadly adopted into other types of microchips, thus having broader impact beyond the in situ/operando fields.