Compressively Sensed Video Acquisition in Transmission Electron Microscopy

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is an extremely powerful tool for physical, material, and biological science at the nanoscale. This is especially true for higher-dimensional acquisition modes that produce data beyond the usual two-dimensional images, adding resolution in time, depth (via tomography), scattering angle (through STEM-diffraction, also called 4D STEM), and spectroscopy. Unfortunately, these higher-dimensional modes are extremely bandwidth-hungry. Every added dimension greatly multiplies the number of bytes that need to be captured, with associated increases in acquisition time, sample damage, and equipment expense. This includes, more and more, the equipment needed to transfer, store, and analyze the data. Modern kilohertz-scale cameras are starting to address the issue, but they are not a complete solution, and they can be quite expensive.