Figure 4. Electron-structure interactions in amorphous and crystalline silk proteins.

(a–l) Three sets of silk nanostructures have been made in positive (row 1, nanosculpturing) and negative (row 2 and row 3, nanosintering) tones using EBL at various dosages. The lineouts (column 4) correspond to the dashed lines in AFM topographic images (column 3). A pre-exposure was applied to deform/de-crosslink β-sheets (to random coils) in crystalline silk (row 3), which can be further re-crosslinked to form negative nanostructures, similar to those generated by the process starting with the amorphous silk (row 2).