Imaging modes for direct electron detection in TEM with column parallel CCD

Electron imaging detectors have become the main limiting factor in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A transition is now being made from indirect scintillator-coupled cameras to directly exposed detectors, which propose imaging modes that are novel in TEM. This work uses a dataset recoded with a directly exposed column parallel charge-coupled-device (CCD) to characterize modulation transfer and detective quantum efficiency of integrating, binary and counting imaging modes. Results presented here demonstrate that counting mode produces final images with largest contrast and highest efficiency because it takes into account the large lateral displacement of beam electrons in the detector. Counting imaging mode is recommended in TEM to take advantage from the higher sensitivity of directly exposed detectors.