title: Performance of a direct detection camera for off-axis electron holography.
abstract: The performance of a direct detection camera (DDC) is evaluated in the context of off-axis electron holographic experiments in a transmission electron microscope. Its performance is also compared directly with that of a conventional charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The DDC evaluated here can be operated either by the detection of individual electron events (counting mode) or by the effective integration of many such events during a given exposure time (linear mode). It is demonstrated that the improved modulation transfer functions and detective quantum efficiencies of both modes of the DDC give rise to significant benefits over the conventional CCD cameras, specifically, a significant improvement in the visibility of the holographic fringes and a reduction of the statistical error in the phase of the reconstructed electron wave function. The DDC's linear mode, which can handle higher dose rates, allows optimisation of the dose rate to achieve the best phase resolution for a wide variety of experimental conditions. For suitable conditions, the counting mode can potentially utilise a significantly lower dose to achieve a phase resolution that is comparable to that achieved using the linear mode. The use of multiple holograms and correlation techniques to increase the total dose in counting mode is also demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany; LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. Electronic address: shery.chang@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Shery L Y
authors.initials: SLY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany; Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dwyer
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Juri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barthel
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Chris B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Boothroyd
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Rafal E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dunin-Borkowski
keywords: Direct detection camera; Electron holography; Phase error