Local thickness and composition measurements from scanning convergent-beam electron diffraction of a binary non-crystalline material obtained by a pixelated detector

TL;DR

This paper presents a method using 4D-STEM diffraction patterns to measure local composition and thickness of SiO2-based glass with significantly lower electron dose compared to traditional EELS, enabling detailed analysis of non-crystalline materials.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach combining 4D-STEM diffraction and simulated pattern comparison to determine local composition and thickness in non-crystalline materials.

Findings

Achieved local composition and thickness measurements with less than 10% of EELS electron dose.

Demonstrated the method's effectiveness on SiO2-based glass.

Provided a new technique for non-destructive, high-resolution analysis of amorphous materials.

Abstract

We measured the local composition and thickness of SiO2-based glass material from diffraction. By using four dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM), we obtained diffraction at each scanning point. Comparing the obtained diffraction with simulated diffraction patterns, we try to measure the local composition and thickness. Although this method requires some constraints, this method measured local composition and thickness with 1/10 or less electron dose of EELS.