A tilting procedure to enhance compositional contrast and reduce residual diffraction contrast in energy-filtered TEM imaging of planar interfaces

• Published in: Micron (Oxford, England : 1993) Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 39 - 51
• Main Authors: Moore, K.T., Stach, E.A., Howe, J.M., Elbert, D.C., Veblen, D.R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 2002
• Subjects: Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS); Elemental map; Energy-filtered image (EFI); Energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM); Jump-ratio image; Semiconductor interfaces; Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); Energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM); Jump-ratio image; Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS); Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); Semiconductor interfaces; Energy-filtered image (EFI); Elemental map
• ISSN: 0968-4328; 1878-4291
• DOI: 10.1016/S0968-4328(00)00072-X

This paper systematically demonstrates that energy-filtered transmission electron microscope (EFTEM) images of a planar interface between two single crystals have increased compositional contrast and decreased residual diffraction contrast when the sample is oriented so that the electron beam is parallel to the interface, but not directly on a zone axis. This off-axis orientation reduces diffraction contrast in the unfiltered (and zero-loss) image, which in turn, reduces residual diffraction contrast in single energy-filtered TEM (EFTEM) images, thickness maps, jump-ratio images, and elemental maps. Most importantly, this procedure produces EFTEM images that are more directly interpretable and, in most cases, possess superior spatial resolution compared to EFTEM images acquired directly on a zone axis.