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Updated: May 22, 2026

Picometer-Precision Atomic Position Tracking through Electron Microscopy
Published on: July 3, 2021
Determining on-axis crystal thickness with quantitative position-averaged incoherent bright-field signal in an
Huolin L Xin1, Ye Zhu, David A Muller
1Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. hx35@cornell.edu
Abstract:
An accurate determination of specimen thickness is essential for quantitative analytical electron microscopy. Here we demonstrate that a position-averaged incoherent bright-field signal recorded on an absolute scale can be used to determine the thickness of on-axis crystals with a precision of ±1.6 nm. This method measures both the crystalline and the noncrystalline parts (surface amorphous layers) of the sample. However, it avoids the systematic error resulting from surface plasmon contributions to the inelastic mean-free-path thickness estimated by electron energy loss spectroscopy.
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