Strain analysis with nanometer resolution using a conventional transmission electron microsopy technique: electron diffraction contrast imaging revisited

There is a growing need for elastic strain characterization techniques with submicrometer resolution in several engineering technologies. In advanced material science and engineering the quantitative knowledge of elastic strain, e.g. at small particles or fibers in reinforced composite materials, can lead to a better understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms and thus to an optimization of material production processes. In advanced semiconductor processing and technology, the current size of micro-electronic devices requires an increasing effort in the analysis and characterization of localized strain. More than 30 years have passed since electron diffraction contrast imaging (EDCI) was used for the first time to analyse the local strain field in and around small coherent precipitates1. In later stages the same technique was used to identify straight dislocations by simulating the EDCI contrast resulting from the strain field of a dislocation and comparing it with experimental observations. Since then the technique was developed further by a small number of researchers, most of whom programmed their own dedicated algorithms to solve the problem of EDCI image simulation for the particular problem they were studying at the time.