Imaging columns of the light elements carbon, nitrogen and oxygen with sub Angstrom resolution.
It is reported that lattice imaging with a 300 kV field emission microscope in combination with numerical reconstruction procedures can be used to reach an interpretable resolution of about 80 pm for the first time. A retrieval of the electron exit wave from focal series allows for the resolution of single atomic columns of the light elements carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen at a projected nearest neighbor spacing down to 85 pm. Lens aberrations are corrected on-line during the experiment and by hardware such that resulting image distortions are below 80 pm. Consequently, the imaging can be aberration-free to this extent. The resolution enhancement results from increased electrical and mechanical stability of the instrument coupled with a low spherical aberration coefficient of 0.595 + 0.005 mm.
Kisielowski
C
C
National Center for Electron Microscopy, Material Sciences Division, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA 94720, USA. cfkisielowsk@lbl.gov
Hetherington
C J
CJ
Wang
Y C
YC
Kilaas
R
R
O'Keefe
M A
MA
Thust
A
A