Comparative image simulations for phase-plate transmission electron microscopy

TL;DR

This paper compares different physical phase plates in transmission electron microscopy through realistic image simulations, highlighting their effects on image quality and artifacts across various applications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive simulation-based comparison of phase plates, including a new software tool, to evaluate their performance in TEM imaging.

Findings

Hole-free phase plates offer superior phase-shifting for biological samples.

Adjustable phase plates improve imaging flexibility.

Simulations show increased interpretability of weak-phase objects with phase plates.

Abstract

Numerous physical phase plates (PP) for phase-contrast enhancement in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been proposed and studied with the hole-free or Volta PP having a high impact and interest in recent years. This study is concerned with comparative TEM image simulations considering realistic descriptions of various PP approaches and samples from three different fields of application covering a large range of object sizes. The simulated images provide an illustrative characterization of the typical image appearance and common artifacts of the dfferent PPs and the influence of simulation parameters especially important for PP simulations. A quantitative contrast analysis shows the superior phase-shifting properties of the hole-free phase plate for biological applications and the benefits of adjustable phase plates. The application of PPs in high-resolution TEM imaging, especially of weak-phase objects such as (atomically thin) 2D materials, is shown to increase image interpretability. The software with graphical user interface written and used for the presented simulations is available for free usage.