Diffractive imaging of the dumbbell structure in silicon by spherical-aberration-corrected electron diffraction

The dumbbell structure in crystalline silicon as known with the separation of 0.136 nm has been reconstructed clearly by diffractive imaging using an electron beam. The spatial resolution in the result is estimated at about 0.1 nm. By utilizing the selected area diffraction technique in a spherical-aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope, one can reconstruct nanostructures with atomic resolution, even if they are not surrounded by empty space such as localized structures embedded in thin film samples. This means that the present method has a unique potential to expand the versatility of diffractive imaging by electron beams drastically.