We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Technological opportunities are explored to enhance detection schemes in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) that build on the detection of single-electron scattering events across the typical spectrum of interdisciplinary applications. They range from imaging with high spatiotemporal resolution to diffraction experiments at the window to quantum mechanics, where the wave-particle dualism of single electrons is evident. At the ultimate detection limit, where isolated electrons are delivered to interact with solids, we find that the beam current dominates damage processes instead of the deposited electron charge, which can be exploited to modify electron beam-induced sample alterations. The results are explained by assuming that all electron scattering are inelastic and include phonon excitation that can hardly be distinguished from elastic electron scattering. Consequently, a coherence length and a related coherence time exist that reflect the interaction of the electron with the sample and change linearly with energy loss. Phonon excitations are of small energy (<100 meV), but they occur frequently and scale with beam current in the irradiated area, which is why we can detect their contribution to beam-induced sample alterations and damage.