title: Nanocrystal size distribution analysis from transmission electron microscopy images.
abstract: We propose a method, with minimal bias caused by user input, to quickly detect and measure the nanocrystal size distribution from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images using a combination of Laplacian of Gaussian filters and non-maximum suppression. We demonstrate the proposed method on bright-field TEM images of an a-SiC:H sample containing embedded silicon nanocrystals with varying magnifications and we compare the accuracy and speed with size distributions obtained by manual measurements, a thresholding method and PEBBLES. Finally, we analytically consider the error induced by slicing nanocrystals during TEM sample preparation on the measured nanocrystal size distribution and formulate an equation to correct this effect.
authors.affiliation: Photovoltaic Materials and Devices, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands. m.vansebille@tudelft.nl.
authors.forename: Martijn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Sebille
authors.forename: Laurens J P
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: van der Maaten
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Karol
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jarolimek
authors.forename: Rudi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Santbergen
authors.forename: René A C M M
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: van Swaaij
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leifer
authors.forename: Miro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeman