Large angle illumination enabling accurate structure reconstruction from thick samples in scanning transmission electron microscopy.

Most reconstructions of the electrostatic potential of a specimen at atomic resolution assume a thin and weakly scattering sample, restricting accurate quantification to specimens only tens of Ångströms thick. We demonstrate that using large-angle-illumination scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)-a probe forming aperture with convergence angle larger than about 50 mrad-allows us to better meet the weak phase object approximation and thereby accurately reconstruct the electrostatic potential in samples thicker than the order of 100 Å.