Stereological analysis of partially amorphous HREM images
The HREM is highly sensitive to the presence of crystals in a specimen. As a results, researchers often report the presence of some fringe contrast in an otherwise amorphous image. The potential for obtaining more information than just a sense of the presence of crystal has not been addressed in detail. In the interest of allowing some amount of quantitative analysis of HREM images of partially and fully amorphous materials, we have developed an analytical method with which to quantify the directionality of an image using stereology.Figure 1 is a series of HREM images taken through the crystal - amorphous interface of an electron irradiated Cu-Ti intermetallic alloy. The first image is from an unirradiated crystalline region. The second image is from a low dose irradiated region, while the third is from a region that has been irradiated to a dose just under the necessary dosage for a total amorphous transition.