Abstract
c 2015 American Chemical Society.Recently, in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has provided a route to analyze structural characterization and chemical evolution with its powerful and unique applications. In this paper, we disclose the detailed phenomenon of sublimation on the atomic scale. In<inf>2</inf>Se<inf>3</inf>/In<inf>2</inf>O<inf>3</inf> nanowires were synthesized via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism and studied in an ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) TEM at high temperature in real time. During in situ observation of the sublimation process of the nanowires, the evolution and reconstruction of the exposed In<inf>2</inf>Se<inf>3</inf> surface progressed in different manners with time. The surface structure was decomposed by mass-desorption and stepwise-migration processes, which are also energetically favored processes in the ab initio calculation. This study developed a new concept and will be essential in the development of atomic kinetics.