Increasing Spatial Fidelity and SNR of 4D-STEM using Multi-frame Data Fusion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to enhance the spatial fidelity and SNR of 4D-STEM data by extending distortion correction techniques to multi-frame series, improving image quality and resolution in electron microscopy.

Contribution

It presents a novel extension of distortion correction techniques specifically for 4D-STEM data series, improving spatial fidelity and SNR in electron microscopy imaging.

Findings

Improved spatial-fidelity in 4D-STEM images.

Enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

Better phase-precision and spatial-resolution.

Abstract

4D-STEM, in which the 2D diffraction plane is captured for each 2D scan position in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) using a pixelated detector, is complementing and increasingly replacing existing imaging approaches. However, at present the speed of those detectors, although having drastically improved in the recent years, is still 100 to 1,000 times slower than the current PMT technology operators are used to. Regrettably, this means environmental scanning-distortion often limits the overall performance of the recorded 4D data. Here we present an extension of existing STEM distortion correction techniques for the treatment of 4D-data series. Although applicable to 4D-data in general, we use electron ptychography and electric-field mapping as model cases and demonstrate an improvement in spatial-fidelity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), phase-precision and spatial-resolution.