A combined experimental and theoretical approach to atomic scale characterization

Recently, the scanning transmission electron microscope has become capable of forming electron probes of atomic dimensions. Through the technique of Z-contrast imaging, it is now possible to form atomic resolution images with high compositional sensitivity from which atomic column positions can be directly determined. An incoherent image of this nature also allows atomic resolution chemical analysis to be performed, by locating the probe over particular columns or planes seen in the image while electron energy loss spectra are collected. Such data represents either an ideal starting point for first principles theoretical calculations or a test of theoretical predictions. The authors present several examples where theory and experiment together give a very complete and often surprising atomic scale view of complex materials