Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 27, 2026

Comprehensive Characterization of Extended Defects in Semiconductor Materials by a Scanning Electron Microscope
Published on: May 28, 2016
Lattice-resolution contrast from a focused coherent electron probe. Part II
S D Findlay1, L J Allen, M P Oxley
1School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.
Abstract:
In the previous paper, boundary conditions matching the probe to the crystal wave function in scanning transmission electron microscopy were applied by matching the whole wave function across the boundary. It is shown here how that approach relates to previous Bloch wave formulations using (phase-linked) plane wave boundary conditions for wave vectors implied by the range of transverse momentum components in the incident probe. Matching the whole wave function across the boundary, and including a suitably fine mesh in the reciprocal space associated with the crystal to allow matching of transverse momentum components within the probe, leads to a structure matrix A containing many elements which would normally be excluded for plane wave incidence. For perfect crystals, the A-matrix may be block diagonalised. This leads to a considerable increase in the computational efficiency of the model and yields important insights into the physics of convergent probes in perfect crystals-reciprocity in coherent imaging and the small aperture limit for coherent and incoherent contrast are considered. The numerical equivalence of the incoherent lattice contrast calculated in this Bloch wave method and the multislice method using mixed dynamic form factors will be demonstrated. Comparison between both these methods and the frozen phonon model, a prevalent multislice method for annular dark field simulation which has the theoretical advantage of handling double channelling, will be made.
Related Concept Videos
Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy
The de Broglie Wavelength
Overview of Electron Microscopy
Determination of Crystal Structures
X-ray Crystallography
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...
Super-resolution Fluorescence Microscopy

