skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Image registration of low signal-to-noise cryo-STEM data

Journal Article · · Ultramicroscopy
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [2];  [6];  [1]
  1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
  2. The Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  4. Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
  5. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  6. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

Combining multiple fast image acquisitions to mitigate scan noise and drift artifacts has proven essential for picometer precision, quantitative analysis of atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) data. For very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) image stacks – frequently required for undistorted imaging at liq- uid nitrogen temperatures – image registration is particularly delicate, and standard approaches may either fail, or produce subtly specious reconstructed lattice images. We present an approach which effectively registers and averages image stacks which are challenging due to their low-SNR and propensity for unit cell misalignments. Registering all possible image pairs in a multi-image stack leads to significant information surplus. In combination with a simple physical picture of stage drift, this enables identi cation of incorrect image registrations, and determination of the optimal image shifts from the complete set of relative shifts. Here, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on experimental, cryogenic STEM datasets, highlighting subtle artifacts endemic to low-SNR lattice images and how they can be avoided. High-SNR average images with information transfer out to 0.72 Å are achieved at 300 kV and with the sample cooled to near liquid nitrogen temperature.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1479486
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1703388
Journal Information:
Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 191, Issue C; ISSN 0304-3991
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 31 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (37)

Upper limits for the residual aberrations of a high-resolution aberration-corrected STEM journal April 2000
Sub-ångstrom resolution using aberration corrected electron optics journal August 2002
Present status and future prospects of spherical aberration corrected TEM/STEM for study of nanomaterials journal January 2008
Room design for high-performance electron microscopy journal October 2006
Revolving scanning transmission electron microscopy: Correcting sample drift distortion without prior knowledge journal March 2014
Optimized imaging using non-rigid registration journal March 2014
Correcting nonlinear drift distortion of scanning probe and scanning transmission electron microscopies from image pairs with orthogonal scan directions journal March 2016
Correcting the linear and nonlinear distortions for atomically resolved STEM spectrum and diffraction imaging journal January 2018
Nature and evolution of incommensurate charge order in manganites visualized with cryogenic scanning transmission electron microscopy journal January 2018
Site-Specific Preparation of Intact Solid–Liquid Interfaces by Label-Free In Situ Localization and Cryo-Focused Ion Beam Lift-Out journal November 2016
Cryo-scanning transmission electron tomography of vitrified cells journal February 2014
Dose-Efficient Cryo-STEM Imaging of Whole Cells Using the Electron Microscope Pixel Array Detector journal July 2017
Local crystal structure analysis with several picometer precision using scanning transmission electron microscopy journal June 2010
Multiferroic and magnetoelectric materials journal August 2006
The dynamics of charge-density waves journal October 1988
Correlation functions revisited journal October 1992
Extension of phase correlation to subpixel registration journal March 2002
Deconvolution processing of HAADF STEM images journal August 2002
IMAGE-WARP: A real-space restoration method for high-resolution STEM images using quantitative HRTEM analysis journal July 2005
An approach to the systematic distortion correction in aberration-corrected HAADF images journal January 2006
Quantitative measurement of displacement and strain fields from HREM micrographs journal August 1998
Correcting scanning instabilities from images of periodic structures journal July 2012
Identifying and Correcting Scan Noise and Drift in the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope journal May 2013
Image registration methods: a survey journal October 2003
Determining optical flow journal August 1981
Fundamental Performance Limits in Image Registration journal September 2004
Fundamental Limits in Multi-Image Alignment journal November 2016
Analysis of Descent-Based Image Registration journal January 2013
Efficiency of 2D alignment methods journal July 2002
A method for the alignment of heterogeneous macromolecules from electron microscopy journal April 2009
Alignment of cryo-EM movies of individual particles by optimization of image translations journal November 2015
Computer averaging of electron micrographs of 40S ribosomal subunits journal December 1981
Characterizing the response of a scintillator-based detector to single electrons journal February 2016
Bending and breaking of stripes in a charge ordered manganite journal December 2017
Atomic lattice disorder in charge-density-wave phases of exfoliated dichalcogenides (1T-TaS 2 ) journal September 2016
Rearrangement of van der Waals stacking and formation of a singlet state at T = 90 K in a cluster magnet journal January 2017
Atomically engineered ferroic layers yield a room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic journal September 2016

Cited By (4)

Emerging Electron Microscopy Techniques for Probing Functional Interfaces in Energy Materials journal October 2019
Building and exploring libraries of atomic defects in graphene: Scanning transmission electron and scanning tunneling microscopy study journal September 2019
Atomic-resolution in-situ cooling study of oxygen vacancy ordering in La 0.5 Sr 0.5 CoO 3−δ thin films journal June 2019
Emerging Electron Microscopy Techniques for Probing Functional Interfaces in Energy Materials journal January 2020