Posterior corrections for systematic distortions in atomic-resolution images from hexagonal crystals

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new posterior correction method based on information theory to reduce systematic distortions in atomic-resolution images of hexagonal crystals, demonstrated on experimental data from graphite and MoS2.

Contribution

The study presents a novel posterior correction algorithm that effectively restores symmetries in atomic-resolution images, improving image accuracy for hexagonal crystal structures.

Findings

Successful correction of distortions in experimental images

Demonstrated efficacy across multiple microscopy techniques

Open-source software implementation provided

Abstract

Digital images from crystals, as projected from the third spatial dimension and recorded in atomic resolution with any kind of real-world microscope, feature necessarily broken symmetries of the translation-periodicity-restricted Euclidean plane. The symmetry breakings are due to both the imaging process and the real structure of the imaged crystal, with the former cause typically dominating. A posterior algorithmic reduction of the symmetry breaking in such images constitutes, thus, often a correction for many of the distortions that were introduced by the imaging processes. Numerically quantified restorations of such symmetries can, therefore, be used to demonstrate the efficacy of a newly implemented posterior correction method for atomic-resolution images from hexagonal crystals. Recently developed information theory based methods are here shown to be suitable for this purpose. Thirteen experimental atomic-resolution images from graphite and monolayer molybdenite (MoS2), as respectively obtained by scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy in the torsional resonance mode, and aberration-corrected parallel illumination transmission electron microscopy served as test cases in our larger (in its totality so far unpublished) study, from which we quote here. The source code of the software that was used for our distortion corrections and the whole report on that study are freely available on GitHub.