SenseAI and NanoMEGAS have partnered to deliver a new accelerated workflow for 4D-SPED.

Background

Precession-enhanced 4D STEM, also known as Scanning Precession Electron Diffraction (SPED), has become a leading technique for structural analysis at the nanoscale. In recent years, the technique has gained popularity both in science and industry for orientation and phase mapping, strain mapping, electric field mapping, amorphous materials mapping and more. With the introduction of fast pixelated electron detectors, data collection speed has gone up with a factor of 10-100x. A novel approach for improving data collection speed is the use of advanced software algorithms based on compressed sensing. A smart data collection strategy, sparse sampling, in which only 25%-10% of the scan area is measured, is sufficient to reconstruct the full image without major information loss.

The solution

SenseAI and NanoMEGAS have partnered to deliver a new accelerated workflow for 4DSPED. By combining SenseAI’s intelligent sparse acquisition technology with NanoMEGAS’ industry leading PED platform, users can achieve at least a 4× reduction in acquisition time while maintaining excellent crystallographic reconstruction quality. The main advantages of sparse sampling are: fast acquisition times (a factor of 4-10x); reduced electron dose on the sample (well suited for highly beam sensitive material); easy to implement to new and existing installations; works with any camera/detector supported by NanoMEGAS. The joint solution reduces the number of measured scan positions while preserving the information required for reliable PED analysis.