Multislice Simulation of Adf Stem Images
The multislice method (e.g. Goodman and Moodie) of simulating bright field conventional transmission electron microscope (BF-CTEM) images of crystalline specimens can be extended to simulation of scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) images of similar specimens in the annular dark field (ADF) mode. According to the reciprocity theorem (Pogany and Turner and Cowley) BF-CTEM would be equivalent to BF STEM with a point detector. Such a detector (STEM) however would yield an exceedingly small signal to noise ratio. Thus, STEM has found more use in the ADF mode (e.g. Crewe et al.) exploiting the large contrast arising from heavy atoms. In BF imaging (CTEM and STEM) the constrast is roughly proportional to the scattering amplitude f α Z3/4 whereas in DF (CTEM and STEM) imaging it is roughly proportional to the scattering cross σ α Z3/2 where Z is atomic number, a form that is advantageous foatom discrimination.