Phase plates in the transmission electron microscope: operating principles and applications

Marek Malac; Simon Hettler; Misa Hayashida; Emi Kano; Ray F Egerton; Marco Beleggia

doi:10.1093/jmicro/dfaa070

Phase plates in the transmission electron microscope: operating principles and applications

Microscopy (Oxf). 2021 Feb 1;70(1):75-115. doi: 10.1093/jmicro/dfaa070.

Authors

Marek Malac^{1

2}, Simon Hettler³, Misa Hayashida¹, Emi Kano⁴, Ray F Egerton², Marco Beleggia⁵

Affiliations

¹ NRC-NANO, National Research Council, 11421 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2M9, Canada.
² Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada.
³ Laboratorio de Microscopías Avanzadas (LMA), Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragon (INMA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Campus Río Ebro, 50018 Zaragoza, España.
⁴ Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan.
⁵ DTU Nanolab, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.

PMID: 33190146
DOI: 10.1093/jmicro/dfaa070

Abstract

In this paper, we review the current state of phase plate imaging in a transmission electron microscope. We focus especially on the hole-free phase plate design, also referred to as the Volta phase plate. We discuss the implementation, operating principles and applications of phase plate imaging. We provide an imaging theory that accounts for inelastic scattering in both the sample and in the hole-free phase plate.

Keywords: Volta phase plate (VPP); cryo electron microscopy; electron beam-induced sample charging; hole-free phase plate (HFPP); radiation damage; sample contamination.