High resolution imaging properties of the STEM

The effect of the finite size of the atom on the resolution of the STEM is investigated. When the probe size becomes comparable to the size of the atom, the quality of the image depends on the scattering properties of the atom as well as the distribution of electrons in the probe. A technique for calculating the image of a single atom is developed by expanding the scattering amplitude. This allows the image of an atom or its spatial frequency to be expanded into various components. The specific case of dark field contrast formed with elastically scattered electrons is considered. The coefficients of the components are evaluated for carbon and thorium using complex scattering amplitudes derived from relativistic Hartree-Fock-Slater wavefunctions. The coefficients are evaluated for a 100 keV microscope using an immersion type objective lens whose aperture is limited to 12 mrad by primary spherical aberration and a 100 keV microscope using the same objective lens in conjunction with a corrector lens for spherical aberration. Secondary spherical aberration limits the objective aperture of the corrected microscope to 30 mrad.