Multislice Electron Tomography using 4D-STEM

TL;DR

This paper introduces MultiSlice Electron Tomography (MSET), a novel 3D imaging method using 4D-STEM tilt series that enhances atomic resolution, reduces artifacts, and improves sensitivity for light elements at low electron doses.

Contribution

The paper presents a new multislice-based 3D reconstruction technique, MSET, that overcomes limitations of traditional ADF-STEM tomography, enabling better imaging of light elements and radiation-sensitive samples.

Findings

Effective reduction of reconstruction artifacts.

Enhanced sensitivity for low-Z elements.

Potential application to radiation-sensitive materials.

Abstract

Electron tomography offers important three-dimensional (3D) structural information which cannot be observed by two-dimensional imaging. By combining annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM) with aberration correction, the resolution of electron tomography has reached atomic resolution. However, tomography based on ADF-STEM inherently suffers from several issues, including a high electron dose requirement, poor contrast for light elements, and artifacts from image contrast nonlinearity. Here, we developed a new method called MultiSlice Electron Tomography (MSET) based on 4D-STEM tilt series. Our simulations show that multislice-based 3D reconstruction can effectively reduce undesirable reconstruction artifacts from the nonlinear contrast, allowing precise determination of atomic structures with improved sensitivity for low-Z elements, at considerably low electron dose conditions. We expect that the MSET method can be applied to a wide variety of materials, including radiation-sensitive samples and materials containing light elements whose 3D atomic structures have never been fully elucidated due to electron dose limitations or nonlinear imaging contrast.