Aberration-corrected STEM: current performance and future directions

Conference item

Through the correction of spherical aberration in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), the resolving of a 78 pm atomic column spacing has been demonstrated along with information transfer to 61 pm. The achievement of this resolution required careful control of microscope instabilities, parasitic aberrations and the compensation of uncorrected, higher order aberrations. Many of these issues are improved in a next generation STEM fitted with a new design of aberration corrector, and an initial result demonstrating aberration correction to a convergence semi-angle of 40 mrad is shown. The improved spatial resolution and beam convergence allowed for by such correction has implications for the way in which experiments are performed and how STEM data should be interpreted.

Authors: Nellist, P; Chisholm, M; Lupini, A; Borisevich, A; Jr, S

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: EMAG-NANO 2005: Imaging, Analysis and Fabrication on the Nanoscale
• Volume: 26
• Pages: 7-12
• Publication date: 2006-01-01
• Event title: EMAG/NANO Conference on Imaging, Analysis and Fabrication on the Nanoscale
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/26/1/002
• EISSN: 1742-6596
• ISSN: 1742-6588