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Plasmon-Ratio Imaging: A Technique for Enhancing the Contrast of Second Phases with Reduced Diffraction Contrast in TEM Micrographs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2004

Graham J.C. Carpenter
Graham J.C. Carpenter
Affiliation:
Materials Technology Laboratories, Natural Resources Canada, 568 Booth St., Ottawa K1A 0G1, Canada
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Abstract

A technique is proposed for reducing unwanted diffraction contrast when imaging second phases in crystalline materials using transmission electron microscopy. With the suggested name of plasmon-ratio imaging, the technique uses an energy-filtered imaging system to record and determine a ratio for two images taken at energies in the low loss region. Unlike core-loss imaging, the use of very thin specimens is not required. It is concluded that it is often possible to create a ratio image in which the contrast is dominated by energy loss, that is, chemical differences, rather than by diffraction effects.

Keywords

transmission electron microscopyenergy-filtered imaginglow-loss ratio imagesreduced diffraction contrast
Type
Instrumentation and Techniques
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , August 2004 , pp. 435 - 441
Copyright
© 2004 Microscopy Society of America

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References

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