Imaging Atomic-Scale Chemistry from Fused Multi-Modal Electron Microscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fused multi-modal electron microscopy technique that combines elastic and inelastic signals to map atomic-scale chemistry at high resolution and low doses, overcoming fundamental limitations of traditional methods.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach that links elastic and inelastic signals for enhanced chemical imaging at atomic resolution with reduced electron dose.

Findings

Achieves high SNR chemical mapping at lower doses.

Reduces dose requirements by over an order of magnitude.

Validated with simulated and experimental data.

Abstract

Efforts to map atomic-scale chemistry at low doses with minimal noise using electron microscopes are fundamentally limited by inelastic interactions. Here, fused multi-modal electron microscopy offers high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) recovery of material chemistry at nano- and atomic- resolution by coupling correlated information encoded within both elastic scattering (high-angle annular dark field (HAADF)) and inelastic spectroscopic signals (electron energy loss (EELS) or energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX)). By linking these simultaneously acquired signals, or modalities, the chemical distribution within nanomaterials can be imaged at significantly lower doses with existing detector hardware. In many cases, the dose requirements can be reduced by over one order of magnitude. This high SNR recovery of chemistry is tested against simulated and experimental atomic resolution data of heterogeneous nanomaterials.