Transmission electron microscopy 'windows' for nanofabricated structures

We present the microfabrication of silicon nitride membrane supports ('windows') for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and illustrate their usefulness for direct preparation and studies of nanostructures. These membrane 'windows' enable TEM to be incorporated as an affordable diagnostic tool in nanostructure fabrication and applications thereof, in an iterative fashion, both during and after preparation as well as subsequent experimental steps with the nanostructures, and even for real time in situ TEM observations. Several examples are shown, including protein adsorption and nanofabrication for applications in heterogeneous catalysis.