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Orientation and phase mapping in the transmission electron microscope using precession‐assisted diffraction spot recognition: state‐of‐the‐art results
Author(s) -
VILADOT D.,
VÉRON M.,
GEMMI M.,
PEIRÓ F.,
PORTILLO J.,
ESTRADÉ S.,
MENDOZA J.,
LLORCAISERN N.,
NICOLOPOULOS S.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/jmi.12065
Subject(s) - transmission electron microscopy , microscope , conventional transmission electron microscope , precession , high resolution transmission electron microscopy , optics , electron diffraction , materials science , zone axis , electron tomography , scanning transmission electron microscopy , diffraction , electron microscope , physics , astronomy
Summary A recently developed technique based on the transmission electron microscope, which makes use of electron beam precession together with spot diffraction pattern recognition now offers the possibility to acquire reliable orientation/phase maps with a spatial resolution down to 2 nm on a field emission gun transmission electron microscope. The technique may be described as precession‐assisted crystal orientation mapping in the transmission electron microscope, precession‐assisted crystal orientation mapping technique–transmission electron microscope, also known by its product name, ASTAR, and consists in scanning the precessed electron beam in nanoprobe mode over the specimen area, thus producing a collection of precession electron diffraction spot patterns, to be thereafter indexed automatically through template matching. We present a review on several application examples relative to the characterization of microstructure/microtexture of nanocrystalline metals, ceramics, nanoparticles, minerals and organics. The strengths and limitations of the technique are also discussed using several application examples.