Max-planck-gesellschaft Zur F&#xf6;rderung Der Wissenschaften E. V.

Fei Comapny

Radostin Stoyanov Danev

Bart Buijsse

Marco Hugo Petrus Moers

Kasim Sader

A freestanding thin film of nano-crystalline graphite is described, as well as a method of producing a freestanding thin film of nano-crystalline graphite including: The films can be used, for example, as phase plates in a Transmission Electron Microscope.

Method of producing a freestanding thin film of nano-crystalline graphite

The invention relates to a method of using a phase plate, having a thin film, in a transmission electron microscope (TEM), comprising: introducing the phase plate in the TEM; preparing the phase plate by irradiating the film with a focused electron beam; introducing a sample in the TEM; and forming an image of the sample using the prepared phase plate, wherein preparing the phase plate involves locally building up a vacuum potential resulting from a change in the electronic structure of the thin film by irradiating the phase plate with a focused beam of electrons, the vacuum potential leading to an absolute phase shift |&#x3c6;| with a smaller value than at the non-irradiated thin film. Preferably the phase plate is heated to avoid contamination. The phase shift achieved with this phase plate can be tuned by varying the diameter of the irradiated spot.

Method of using a phase plate in a transmission electron microscope

The invention relates to a method of forming an image of a sample in a transmission electron microscope equipped with a phase plate. Prior art use of such a phase plate can introduce artifacts in the form of ringing and a halo. These artifacts are caused by the abrupt changes in the Fourier domain due to the sharp edges of the phase plate in the diffraction plane. By moving the phase plate with respect to the non-diffraction beam (the diffraction pattern) while recording an image the sudden transition in the Fourier domain is changed to a more gradual transition, resulting in less artifacts.

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Munich, Germany

Radostin Stoyanov Danev