Transmission electron microscopy and its applications in material science

Recent progress in the field of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron-energy loss spectroscopy is briefly reviewed. It is emphasized that numerous significant structural issues in material science could be well addressed based on newly developed TEM techniques. For instance, strained-silicon p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors have been clearly studied by large angle convergent-beam electron diffraction, and considerable longitudinal compressive strain, up to 2.510, in the nanometer scale channel region has been revealed. Moreover, in-situ TEM observations clearly demonstrate the remarkable structural features of structural modulations in La(Sr)2MnO4 arising from charge order, and the direct connection between the ferroelectric polarization and charge-stripe order in LuFe2O4.