Prospects for extending the resolution limit of the electron microscope

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Materials Science
• Microscopy

Background:

• Current high-resolution electron microscopes face performance limitations.
• Key factors include source brightness, illumination coherence, and phase contrast artifacts from spherical aberration and defocus.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current efforts in advancing electron microscope performance.
• To identify the most promising directions for future instrumental development.

Main Methods:

• Review of different approaches to enhance electron microscope performance.
• Analysis of strategies including improved coherence, higher accelerating voltages, aberration correction, and incoherent imaging.

Main Results:

• Several methods show potential for improving electron microscope performance.
• The combined use of higher accelerating voltages and enhanced coherence is yielding the greatest progress.

Conclusions:

• Electron microscopy performance is limited by several instrumental factors.
• Future advancements are most effectively achieved by integrating higher voltages with improved coherence conditions.