Analytic derivation of optimal imaging conditions for incoherent imaging in aberration-corrected electron microscopes

The optimal lens parameters for incoherent imaging using third and fifth-order aberration-corrected electron microscopes are derived analytically. We propose simple models for the point spread function (PSF) and transfer function that give analytic formulae for the lateral resolution and depth resolution. We also derive an analytic formula for the contrast transfer function (CTF) in three dimensions and show that depth sectioning has an information limit equivalent to tomography with a missing cone of 90 degrees minus the aperture angle. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.