The imaging of detailed structures of crystal lattices with 3 to 4Å resolution, given the correct conditions of microscope defocus and crystal orientation and thickness, has been used by Iijima (this conference) for the study of new types of crystal structures and the defects in known structures associated with fluctuations of stoichiometry. The image intensities may be computed using n-beam dynamical diffraction theory involving several hundred beams (Fejes, this conference). However it is still important to have a suitable approximation to provide an immediate rough estimate of contrast and an evaluation of the intuitive interpretation in terms of an amplitude object.For crystals 100 to 150Å thick containing moderately heavy atoms the phase changes of the electron wave vary by about 10 radians suggesting that the “optimum defocus” theory of amplitude contrast for thin phase objects due to Scherzer and others can not apply, although it does predict the right defocus for optimum imaging.
