The principle and applications of high-resolution scanning electron microscopy

Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is currently one of the most widely used methods for microscopic imaging, due to its advantages of improved resolution, high compositional sensitivity, and directly interpretable images. High-resolution STEM can directly obtain atomic resolution Z-contrast images, and also analyze the atomic and electronic structure of materials on a sub-angstrom scale in combination with X-ray energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and electron energy loss spectrometry (EELS). The fundamental concept and applications of STEM are briefly introduced, and the principle, characteristics and applications of high angle annular dark field and annular bright field imaging are described. The characteristics and applications of EDS and EELS are also briefly described.