title: The influence of structure depth on image blurring of micrometres-thick specimens in MeV transmission electron imaging.
abstract: This study investigates the influence of structure depth on image blurring of micrometres-thick films by experiment and simulation with a conventional transmission electron microscope (TEM). First, ultra-high-voltage electron microscope (ultra-HVEM) images of nanometer gold particles embedded in thick epoxy-resin films were acquired in the experiment and compared with simulated images. Then, variations of image blurring of gold particles at different depths were evaluated by calculating the particle diameter. The results showed that with a decrease in depth, image blurring increased. This depth-related property was more apparent for thicker specimens. Fortunately, larger particle depth involves less image blurring, even for a 10-μm-thick epoxy-resin film. The quality dependence on depth of a 3D reconstruction of particle structures in thick specimens was revealed by electron tomography. The evolution of image blurring with structure depth is determined mainly by multiple elastic scattering effects. Thick specimens of heavier materials produced more blurring due to a larger lateral spread of electrons after scattering from the structure. Nevertheless, increasing electron energy to 2MeV can reduce blurring and produce an acceptable image quality for thick specimens in the TEM.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Department of Electronic Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Department of Electronic Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Department of Electronic Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: mengcao@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Ultrahigh Voltage Electron Microscopy, Osaka University, 7-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryuji
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nishi
keywords: Image blurring; Multiple scattering; Structure depth; Thick specimens