1 research outputs found
Artefacts in geometric phase analysis of compound materials
The geometric phase analysis (GPA) algorithm is known as a robust and
straightforward technique that can be used to measure lattice strains in high
resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) images. It is also attractive
for analysis of aberration-corrected scanning TEM (ac-STEM) images that resolve
every atom column, since it uses Fourier transforms and does not require
real-space peak detection and assignment to appropriate sublattices. Here it is
demonstrated that in ac-STEM images of compound materials (i.e. with more than
one atom per unit cell) an additional phase is present in the Fourier
transform. If the structure changes from one area to another in the image (e.g.
across an interface), the change in this additional phase will appear as a
strain in conventional GPA, even if there is no lattice strain. Strategies to
avoid this pitfall are outlined.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Preprint before review, submitted to
Ultramicroscopy 7 April 201