title: Estimation of mass thickness response of embedded aggregated silica nanospheres from high angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron micrographs.
abstract: In this study, we investigate the functional behaviour of the intensity in high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron micrograph images. The model material is a silica particle (20 nm) gel at 5 wt%. By assuming that the intensity response is monotonically increasing with increasing mass thickness of silica, an estimate of the functional form is calculated using a maximum likelihood approach. We conclude that a linear functional form of the intensity provides a fair estimate but that a power function is significantly better for estimating the amount of silica in the z-direction. The work adds to the development of quantifying material properties from electron micrographs, especially in the field of tomography methods and three-dimensional quantitative structural characterization from a scanning transmission electron micrograph. It also provides means for direct three-dimensional quantitative structural characterization from a scanning transmission electron micrograph.
authors.affiliation: Applied Surface Chemistry, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nordin
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abrahamsson
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Blomqvist
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Häbel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Röding
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Olsson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nydén
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rudemo
keywords: Likelihood; mass thickness; scanning transmission electron microscopy; structural characterization