A new dynamical theory has been developed based on Yoshioka's coupled equations for describing inelastic electron scattering in thin crystals. Compared to existing theories, the primary advantage of this theory is that the incoherent summation of the diffracted intensities contributed by electrons after exciting vast numbers of different excited states has been evaluated before any numerical calculation. An additional advantage is that the phase correlations of atomic vibrations are considered, so that full lattice dynamics can be combined in the phonon scattering calculation. The new theory has been proven to be equivalent to the inelastic multislice theory, and has been applied to calculate energy-filtered diffraction patterns and images formed by phonon, single electron and valence scattered electrons.A calculated diffraction pattern of elastic and phonon scattered electrons for a parallel incident beam case is in agreement with the one observed (Fig. 1), showing thermal diffuse scattering (TDS) streaks and Kikuchi pattern.
Toward precise simulations of the coupled ultrafast dynamics of electrons and atomic vibrations in materials
