Electron Microscope Image Contrast for Thin Crystals

Abstract

High resolution electron microscope images showing the detailed distribution of metal atoms within the unit cells of complex oxide structures have been recorded recently and as a first approximation may be interpreted as amplitude-object images if obtained with the degree of defocus corresponding to the “optimum-defocus condition” for the phase-contrast imaging of thin phase objects. Detailed observations of images of Ti2Nb10O29 crystals having thicknesses of the order of 100 Å reveal that the thin phase-object approximation, which assumes that only small phase-shifts are involved, is inadequate to explain some features of the image intensities including the variation of contrast with crystal thickness. A very aproximate treatment of the phase contrast due to defocussing of phase objects having large phase shifts is evolved and shown to give a qualitativity correct account of the observations. The variation of image contrast with tilt away from a principle orientation is discussed. From the symmetry of the image contrast it is deduced that the symmetry of the crystal structure as derived from X-ray diffraction studies can not be correct. © 1972, Walter de Gruyter. All rights reserved.