scholarly journals Off-axis Electron Holography on 2D Materials with Small Coherent and Incoherent Aberrations

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (S1) ◽  
pp. 128-129
Author(s):  
Axel Lubk ◽  
Robert Imlau ◽  
Subakti Subakti ◽  
Felix Kern ◽  
Martin Linck ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Hannes Lichte ◽  
Edgar Voelkl

The object wave o(x,y) = a(x,y)exp(iφ(x,y)) at the exit face of the specimen is described by two real functions, i.e. amplitude a(x,y) and phase φ(x,y). In stead of o(x,y), however, in conventional transmission electron microscopy one records only the real intensity I(x,y) of the image wave b(x,y) loosing the image phase. In addition, referred to the object wave, b(x,y) is heavily distorted by the aberrations of the microscope giving rise to loss of resolution. Dealing with strong objects, a unique interpretation of the micrograph in terms of amplitude and phase of the object is not possible. According to Gabor, holography helps in that it records the image wave completely by both amplitude and phase. Subsequently, by means of a numerical reconstruction procedure, b(x,y) is deconvoluted from aberrations to retrieve o(x,y). Likewise, the Fourier spectrum of the object wave is at hand. Without the restrictions sketched above, the investigation of the object can be performed by different reconstruction procedures on one hologram. The holograms were taken by means of a Philips EM420-FEG with an electron biprism at 100 kV.


Author(s):  
Z.L. Wang

An experimental technique for performing electron holography using a non-FEG, non-biprism transmission electron microscope (TEM) has been introduced by Ru et al. A double stacked specimens, one being a single crystal foil and the other the specimen, are loaded in the normal specimen position in TEM. The single crystal, which is placed onto the specimen, is responsible to produce two beams that are equivalent to two virtual coherent sources illuminating the specimen beneath, thus, permitting electron holography of the specimen. In this paper, the imaging theory of this technique is described. Procedures are introduced for digitally reconstructing the holograms.


Author(s):  
E. Völkl ◽  
L.F. Allard ◽  
B. Frost ◽  
T.A. Nolan

Off-axis electron holography has the well known ability to preserve the complex image wave within the final, recorded image. This final image described by I(x,y) = I(r) contains contributions from the image intensity of the elastically scattered electrons IeI (r) = |A(r) exp (iΦ(r)) |, the contributions from the inelastically scattered electrons IineI (r), and the complex image wave Ψ = A(r) exp(iΦ(r)) as:(1) I(r) = IeI (r) + Iinel (r) + μ A(r) cos(2π Δk r + Φ(r))where the constant μ describes the contrast of the interference fringes which are related to the spatial coherence of the electron beam, and Φk is the resulting vector of the difference of the wavefront vectors of the two overlaping beams. Using a software package like HoloWorks, the complex image wave Ψ can be extracted.


Author(s):  
Xiao Zhang

Electron holography has recently been available to modern electron microscopy labs with the development of field emission electron microscopes. The unique advantage of recording both amplitude and phase of the object wave makes electron holography a effective tool to study electron optical phase objects. The visibility of the phase shifts of the object wave makes it possible to directly image the distributions of an electric or a magnetic field at high resolution. This work presents preliminary results of first high resolution imaging of ferroelectric domain walls by electron holography in BaTiO3 and quantitative measurements of electrostatic field distribution across domain walls.


Author(s):  
P.M. Mul ◽  
B.J.M. Bormans ◽  
L. Schaap

The first Field Emission Guns (FEG) on TEM/STEM instruments were introduced by Philips in 1977. In the past decade these EM400-series microscopes have been very successful, especially in analytical electron microscopy, where the high currents in small probes are particularly suitable. In High Resolution Electron Holography, the high coherence of the FEG has made it possible to approach atomic resolution.Most of these TEM/STEM systems are based on a cold field emitter (CFE). There are, however, a number of disadvantages to CFE’s, because of their very small emission region: the maximum current is limited (a strong disadvantage for high-resolution TEM imaging) and the emission is unstable, requiring special measures to reduce the strong FEG-induced noise. Thermal field emitters (TFE), i.e. a zirconiated field emitter source operating in the thermal or Schottky mode, have been shown to be a viable and attractive alternative to CFE’s. TFE’s have larger emission regions, providing much higher maximum currents, better stability, and reduced sensitivity to vacuum conditions as well as mechanical and electrical interferences.


Author(s):  
A. K. Datye ◽  
D. S. Kalakkad ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
E. Völkl

The active phase in heterogeneous catalysts consists of nanometer-sized metal or oxide particles dispersed within the tortuous pore structure of a high surface area matrix. Such catalysts are extensively used for controlling emissions from automobile exhausts or in industrial processes such as the refining of crude oil to produce gasoline. The morphology of these nano-particles is of great interest to catalytic chemists since it affects the activity and selectivity for a class of reactions known as structure-sensitive reactions. In this paper, we describe some of the challenges in the study of heterogeneous catalysts, and provide examples of how electron holography can help in extracting details of particle structure and morphology on an atomic scale.Conventional high-resolution TEM imaging methods permit the image intensity to be recorded, but the phase information in the complex image wave is lost. However, it is the phase information which is sensitive at the atomic scale to changes in specimen thickness and composition, and thus analysis of the phase image can yield important information on morphological details at the nanometer level.


Author(s):  
J.K. Weiss ◽  
M. Gajdardziska-Josifovska ◽  
M. R. McCartney ◽  
David J. Smith

Interfacial structure is a controlling parameter in the behavior of many materials. Electron microscopy methods are widely used for characterizing such features as interface abruptness and chemical segregation at interfaces. The problem for high resolution microscopy is to establish optimum imaging conditions for extracting this information. We have found that off-axis electron holography can provide useful information for the study of interfaces that is not easily obtained by other techniques.Electron holography permits the recovery of both the amplitude and the phase of the image wave. Recent studies have applied the information obtained from electron holograms to characterizing magnetic and electric fields in materials and also to atomic-scale resolution enhancement. The phase of an electron wave passing through a specimen is shifted by an amount which is proportional to the product of the specimen thickness and the projected electrostatic potential (ignoring magnetic fields and diffraction effects). If atomic-scale variations are ignored, the potential in the specimen is described by the mean inner potential, a bulk property sensitive to both composition and structure. For the study of interfaces, the specimen thickness is assumed to be approximately constant across the interface, so that the phase of the image wave will give a picture of mean inner potential across the interface.


Author(s):  
J.M. Cowley

The HB5 STEM instrument at ASU has been modified previously to include an efficient two-dimensional detector incorporating an optical analyser device and also a digital system for the recording of multiple images. The detector system was built to explore a wide range of possibilities including in-line electron holography, the observation and recording of diffraction patterns from very small specimen regions (having diameters as small as 3Å) and the formation of both bright field and dark field images by detection of various portions of the diffraction pattern. Experience in the use of this system has shown that sane of its capabilities are unique and valuable. For other purposes it appears that, while the principles of the operational modes may be verified, the practical applications are limited by the details of the initial design.


Author(s):  
Vinayak P. Dravid ◽  
H. Zhang ◽  
L.D. Marks ◽  
J.P. Zhang

A 200 kV cold field emission gun atomic resolution analytical electron microscope (ARAEM, Hitachi HF-2000) has been recently installed at Northwestern. The ARAEM offers an unprecedented combination of atomic structure imaging of better than 0.20 nm nominal point-to-point resolution and about 0.10 nm line resolution, alongwith nanoscale analytical capabilities and electron holography in one single instrument. The ARAEM has been fully functional/operational and this paper presents some illustrative examples of application of ARAEM techniques to oxide superconductors. Additional results will be presented at the meeting.


Author(s):  
Vinayak P. Dravid ◽  
V. Ravikumar ◽  
Richard Plass

With the advent of coherent electron sources with cold field emission guns (cFEGs), it has become possible to utilize the coherent interference phenomenon and perform “practical” electron holography. Historically, holography was envisioned to extent the resolution limit by compensating coherent aberrations. Indeed such work has been done with reasonable success in a few laboratories around the world. However, it is the ability of electron holography to map electrical and magnetic fields which has caught considerable attention of materials science community.There has been considerable theoretical work on formation of space charge on surfaces and internal interfaces. In particular, formation and nature of space charge have important implications for the performance of numerous electroceramics which derive their useful properties from electrically active grain boundaries. Bonnell and coworkers, in their elegant STM experiments provided the direct evidence for GB space charge and its sign, while Chiang et al. used the indirect but powerful technique of x-ray microchemical profiling across GBs to infer the nature of space charge.


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