Multislice Electron Tomography using 4D-STEM

Abstract

Electron tomography offers important three-dimensional (3D) structural information which cannot be observed by two-dimensional imaging. By combining annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM) with aberration correction, the resolution of electron tomography has reached atomic resolution. However, tomography based on ADF-STEM inherently suffers from several issues, including a high electron dose requirement, poor contrast for light elements, and artifacts from image contrast nonlinearity. Here, we developed a new method called MultiSlice Electron Tomography (MSET) based on 4D-STEM tilt series. Our simulations show that multislice-based 3D reconstruction can effectively reduce undesirable reconstruction artifacts from the nonlinear contrast, allowing precise determination of atomic structures with improved sensitivity for low-Z elements, at considerably low electron dose conditions. We expect that the MSET method can be applied to a wide variety of materials, including radiation-sensitive samples and materials containing light elements whose 3D atomic structures have never been fully elucidated due to electron dose limitations or nonlinear imaging contrast.

26 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Electron ptychography achieves atomic-resolution limits set by lattice vibrations
• Deciphering chemical order/disorder and material properties at the single-atom level
• Theoretical X-Ray Absorption Debye-Waller Factors
• Revealing 3-dimensional core-shell interface structures at the single-atom level
• Single-atom level determination of 3-dimensional surface atomic structure via neural network-assisted atomic electron tomography
• Direct observation of three-dimensional atomic structure of twinned metallic nanoparticles and their catalytic properties

Cited by in corpus (5)

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• Sub-nanometer depth resolution and single dopant visualization achieved by tilt-coupled multislice electron ptychography
• Uncovering the Three-Dimensional Structure of Upconverting Core-Shell Nanoparticles with Multislice Electron Ptychography
• Advancing atomic electron tomography with neural networks
• PhaseT3M: 3D Imaging at 1.6 Å Resolution via Electron Cryo-Tomography with Nonlinear Phase Retrieval