With the state-of-art synchrotron-based X-ray and modern electron microscopy, the spatial resolution and measurement sensitivity have been significantly improved in analyzing materials’ nanostructure, by taking advantages of the high beam flux density or the source brightness. Associated with the ever brighter beam, it also brings the opportunity to investigate the beam effect to material structure modification, which is of significant interests in view of understanding the underlying physics, and it is also important to develop proper methodologies to use these state-of-the art probes to accurately characterize the intrinsic and extrinsic properties of materials.

In our work, we performed x-ray imaging experiment on single crystalline Ag₂VO₂PO₄ battery material sample with a 15 nm resolution using the recently commissioned x-ray imaging capability at the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe Beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II.   Probe-induced electrochemical reaction was observed, which was revealed by the Ag reduction as well as diffusion and re-distribution of Ag.  In order to better understand the probe-induced electrochemical reactions, we also performed imaging experiments with other imaging methods: white-beam microdiffraction, transmission x-ray microscopy (TXM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These probes deliver different levels of radiation does and provides different pathways for probe-induced structural modification.  This presentation will elaborate and quantify the probe-specific structural modifications.