title: Refinement procedure for the image alignment in high-resolution electron tomography.
abstract: High-resolution electron tomography from a tilt series of transmission electron microscopy images requires an accurate image alignment procedure in order to maximise the resolution of the tomogram. This is the case in particular for ultra-high resolution where even very small misalignments between individual images can dramatically reduce the fidelity of the resultant reconstruction. A tomographic-reconstruction based and marker-free method is proposed, which uses an iterative optimisation of the tomogram resolution. The method utilises a search algorithm that maximises the contrast in tomogram sub-volumes. Unlike conventional cross-correlation analysis it provides the required correlation over a large tilt angle separation and guarantees a consistent alignment of images for the full range of object tilt angles. An assessment based on experimental reconstructions shows that the marker-free procedure is competitive to the reference of marker-based procedures at lower resolution and yields sub-pixel accuracy even for simulated high-resolution data.
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute and Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C), Research Centre Jülich, Germany. l.houben@fz-juelich.de
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Houben
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bar Sadan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D055032:Electron Microscope Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012984:Software; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods