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Quantitative Fluctuation Electron Microscopy in the STEM: Methods to Identify, Avoid, and Correct for Artifacts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2014

Tian T. Li ,
Stephanie N. Bogle  and
John R. Abelson
Tian T. Li
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1304 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1308 W. Main St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Stephanie N. Bogle
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1304 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1308 W. Main St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA Global Climate Change Office, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, DC 20523, USA
John R. Abelson*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1304 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1308 W. Main St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA
*
*Corresponding author. abelson@illinois.edu
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Abstract

Fluctuation electron microscopy can reveal the nanoscale order in amorphous materials via the statistical variance in the scattering intensity as a function of position, scattering vector, and resolution. However, several sources of experimental artifacts can seriously affect the magnitude of the variance peaks. The use of a scanning transmission electron microscope for data collection affords a convenient means to check whether artifacts are present. As nanodiffraction patterns are collected in serial, any spatial or temporal dependence of the scattering intensity across the series can easily be detected. We present examples of the major types of artifact and methods to correct the data or to avoid the problem experimentally. We also re-cast the statistical formalism used to identify sources of noise in view of the present results. The present work provides a basis on which to perform fluctuation electron microscopy with a high level of reliability and confidence in the quantitative magnitude of the data.

Keywords

quantitative analysisartifact correctionfluctuation electron microscopycoherenceamorphousmedium-range orderscanning transmission electron microscopy
Type
Instrumentation and Techniques Development
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 20 , Issue 5 , October 2014 , pp. 1605 - 1618
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2014 

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