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Optimizing Nonrigid Registration for Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Image Series

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2020

Chenyu Zhang ,
Jie Feng ,
Andrew B. Yankovich ,
Alexander Kvit ,
Benjamin Berkels  and
Paul M. Voyles
Chenyu Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1509 University Avenue, Madison, WI53706, USA
Jie Feng
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1509 University Avenue, Madison, WI53706, USA
Andrew B. Yankovich
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1509 University Avenue, Madison, WI53706, USA
Alexander Kvit
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1509 University Avenue, Madison, WI53706, USA
Benjamin Berkels
Affiliation:
Aachen Institute for Advanced Study in Computational Engineering Science, RWTH Aachen University, Schinkelstr. 2, 52056Aachen, Germany
Paul M. Voyles*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1509 University Avenue, Madison, WI53706, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: Paul M. Voyles, E-mail: paul.voyles@wisc.edu
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Abstract

Achieving sub-picometer precision measurements of atomic column positions in high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope images using nonrigid registration (NRR) and averaging of image series requires careful optimization of experimental conditions and the parameters of the registration algorithm. On experimental data from SrTiO3 [100], sub-pm precision requires alignment of the sample to the zone axis to within 1 mrad tilt and sample drift of less than 1 nm/min. At fixed total electron dose for the series, precision in the fast scan direction improves with shorter pixel dwell time to the limit of our microscope hardware, but the best precision along the slow scan direction occurs at 6 μs/px dwell time. Within the NRR algorithm, the “smoothness factor” that penalizes large estimated shifts is the most important parameter for sub-pm precision, but in general, the precision of NRR images is robust over a wide range of parameters.

Keywords

high-angle annular dark-fieldimage processingnonrigid registrationscanning transmission electron microscopy
Type
Software and Instrumentation
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 90 - 98
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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