Scanning moiré fringe imaging by scanning transmission electron microscopy

A type of artificial contrast found in annular dark-field imaging is generated by spatial interference between the scanning grating of the electron beam and the specimen atomic lattice. The contrast is analogous to moiré fringes observed in conventional transmission electron microscopy. We propose using this scanning interference for retrieving information about the atomic lattice structure at medium magnifications. Compared with the STEM atomic imaging at high magnifications, this approach might have several advantages including easy observation of lattice discontinuities and reduction of image degradation from carbon contamination and beam damage. Application of the technique to reveal the Burgers vector of misfit dislocations at the interface of epitaxial films is demonstrated and its potential for studying strain fields is discussed.