Coherent electron interference from amorphous TEM specimens

Abstract

For the first time, the electron intensity on the diffraction plane from amorphous transmission electron microscope (TEM) specimens has been found to have sufficient coherence to produce fringes in interferograms that were created using a wavefront splitting method of diffracted beam interferometry. The fringes were found to exist from low to high electron-scattering angles. Their spatial frequency depended on the angular overlap of the interfering beams, which was controlled by an electron biprism. From these interferograms, phase information of amorphous materials, which is information now lacking and required for determining their atomic structures, was obtained. An immediate application of this interference is a new method to determine the spatial resolution of the TEM that occurs at the shear angle for fringe disappearance. © The Author 2010.