On the optical stability of high-resolution transmission electron microscopes

In the recent two decades the technique of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy experienced an unprecedented progress through the introduction of hardware aberration correctors and by the improvement of the achievable resolution to the sub-Angstrom level. The important aspect that aberration correction at a given resolution requires also a well defined amount of optical stability has received little attention so far. Therefore we investigate the qualification of a variety of high-resolution electron microscopes to maintain an aberration corrected optical state in terms of an optical lifetime. We develop a comprehensive statistical framework for the estimation of the optical lifetime and find remarkably low values between tens of seconds and a couple of minutes. Probability curves are introduced, which inform the operator about the chance to work still in the fully aberration corrected state. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.