Influence of thermal diffuse scattering on image contrast in scanning transmission electron microscopy

Abstract

We analyze the loss of contrast in simulated atomic-resolution annular dark-field scan- ning transmission electron microscopy images due to the incoherent thermal diffuse scattering (TDS) for SrTiO3 and PbTiO3 samples. The contribution of TDS in the contrast reduction is evaluated within the TDS generation function approximation. From the thickness dependence of the contrast loss in simulated images it is seen that inclusion of thermal diffuse scattering leads to a strong reduction of the image contrast. PACS numbers: 61.16.Bg; 87.64.Bx