Influence of the static atomic displacement on atomic resolution Z-contrast imaging

Received 11 October 2007; revised manuscript received 23 November 2007; published 11 February 2008The influence of static atomic displacements, due to atomic size effects in alloys with atoms having differentcovalent or ionic radii, on high angle annular dark field image contrast is studied quantitatively by simulationsand experiments. We show that the static displacements can have a large influence on the Z contrast, dependingon the alloy composition and on the scanning transmission electron microscopy specimen thickness. Thisinfluence has to be taken into account for quantitative chemistry measurement based on Z-contrast imaging.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.77.054103 PACS number s : 81.07. b, 68.37. d, 68.37.Lp

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