The influence of spatial and temporal averaging on interpretation of HRTEM images of solid-liquid interfaces

The effects of spatial and temporal averaging on high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images and associated intensity profiles of a solid-liquid Al interface were investigated using atomic coordinates obtained from molecular dynamics simulations. It was found that intensity profiles obtained by spatial averaging across the solid-liquid interface capture the variation in structural features nearly as well as time-averaged intensity profiles. This suggests that adequate spatial averaging of a single HRTEM image can be used to study the contrast from interfaces, and thereby, the structural details, without the need for more time-consuming, computer-intensive time averaged analyses. The limitations of this method are also discussed.