3D Atomic Scale Quantification of Nanostructures and their Dynamics Using Model-based STEM

Quantitative 3D characterization at high resolution is often required in order to fully exploit structure– property relations of nanomaterials. In recent years, the resolution of electron tomography has reached the atomic scale. However, for a successful 3D reconstruction using electron tomography multiple exposures are required, which is not always feasible when studying, for example, radiation-sensitive nanostructures. In order to overcome these limitations, an alternative method can be used where the 3D atomic structure is reconstructed from atom counts obtained from a single ADF STEM projection image. These atom counts can be used to create an initial atomic model which serves as an input for an energy minimization to obtain a relaxed 3D reconstruction of a nanostructure [1].