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Fully Automated Measurement of the Modulation Transfer Function of Charge-Coupled Devices above the Nyquist Frequency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2012

Wouter Van den Broek ,
Sandra Van Aert  and
Dirk Van Dyck
Wouter Van den Broek*
Affiliation:
Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT), University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium
Sandra Van Aert
Affiliation:
Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT), University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium
Dirk Van Dyck
Affiliation:
Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT), University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The charge-coupled devices used in electron microscopy are coated with a scintillating crystal that gives rise to a severe modulation transfer function (MTF). Exact knowledge of the MTF is imperative for a good correspondence between image simulation and experiment. We present a practical method to measure the MTF above the Nyquist frequency from the beam blocker's shadow image. The image processing has been fully automated and the program is made public. The method is successfully tested on three cameras with various beam blocker shapes.

Keywords

modulation transfer functionpoint spread functioncharge-coupled devicescintillator crystalbeam blockertransmission electron microscopyNyquist frequencyFourier analysisaliasing
Type
Techniques and Software Development
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 336 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2012

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References

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