electron diffraction

A method for obtaining information on crystal structures from diffraction patterns, acquired by electron-beam illumination on a specimen. When a specimen is a crystal, the information on various crystal structures is obtained, which include periodicities, symmetries and ordering of atomic arrangements, and defects of crystal lattices. When a specimen is an amorphous material, the distances between the first, second, ... nearest neighbor atoms and the number of these atoms are obtained. Kinematical diffraction theory, which is used for X-ray diffraction, can be applied in geometrical analysis of electron diffraction patterns. However, dynamical diffraction theory needs to be applied in quantitative analysis of diffraction intensities. Since the electron beam is much sharper than the X-ray beam, electron diffraction enables us to obtain crystallographic information on local areas.

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