1997/12/01 by P. Fraundorf, J. Tentschert
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.ins-det #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #physics.optics
published as Ultramicroscopy 37 (1991) 125-129 · 4 pages (1 fig, 16 refs) RevTeX; apps http://newton.umsl.edu/stei_lab/
arxiv created 1997/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
The distinction between point and line resolution in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) arises because an ability to image sub-0.2 nm fringes is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for imaging individual atoms. In scanned tip microscopy, as in TEM, empirical data on instrument response should precede assertions about point resolution. In the ``slow scan limit'', time-domain noise and geometry effects decouple, and tip shape can take on the role of a 2-dimensional impulse response function. We indicate here that nuclear track pits can be used to quantitatively measure tip geometry with nanometer-scale resolution in three dimensions, that stationary tip images provide a robust measure of time-domain instabilities, and that when these data are taken before and after imaging an unknown, images with instrument response quantitatively constrained by experiment are possible. Specimen-induced tip effects also become measurable in situ.