Chromatic Aberration Correction for Atomic Resolution TEM Imaging from 20 to 80 kV.

Atomic resolution in transmission electron microscopy of thin and light-atom materials requires a rigorous reduction of the beam energy to reduce knockon damage. However, at the same time, the chromatic aberration deteriorates the resolution of the TEM image dramatically. Within the framework of the SALVE project, we introduce a newly developed C_{c}/C_{s} corrector that is capable of correcting both the chromatic and the spherical aberration in the range of accelerating voltages from 20 to 80 kV.

Thermal magnetic field noise: electron optics and decoherence.

Thermal magnetic field noise from magnetic and non-magnetic conductive parts close to the electron beam recently has been identified as a reason for decoherence in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Here, we report about new experimental results from measurements for a layered structure of magnetic and non-magnetic materials. For a simplified version of this setup and other situations we derive semi-analytical models in order to predict the strength, bandwidth and spatial correlation of the noise fields.

Thermal magnetic field noise limits resolution in transmission electron microscopy.

The resolving power of an electron microscope is determined by the optics and the stability of the instrument. Recently, progress has been obtained towards subångström resolution at beam energies of 80 kV and below but a discrepancy between the expected and achieved instrumental information limit has been observed. Here we show that magnetic field noise from thermally driven currents in the conductive parts of the instrument is the root cause for this hitherto unexplained decoherence phenomenon.

New electrostatic phase plate for phase-contrast transmission electron microscopy and its application for wave-function reconstruction.

A promising novel type of electrostatic phase plate for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is presented. The phase plate consists of a single microcoaxial cable-like rod with its electrode exposed to the undiffracted electrons. The emerging field is used to shift the phase of the undiffracted electrons with respect to diffracted electrons.

First application of Cc-corrected imaging for high-resolution and energy-filtered TEM.

Contrast-transfer calculations indicate that C(c) correction should be highly beneficial for high-resolution and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy. A prototype of an electron optical system capable of correcting spherical and chromatic aberration has been used to verify these calculations. A strong improvement in resolution at an acceleration voltage of 80 kV has been measured.