Transmission Electron Microscopy for Materials Science

Assignment Week 6
Assignment 6.1 (8 pt) – bend contours
a) The figure below shows a BF TEM image of a GaAs nanowire of mainly uniform diameter,
which is supported on a thin amorphous carbon film. Explain the bands of dark and bright
contrast that appear along its length.

b) The figure below shows a bright-field TEM image of a high entropy alloy thinned to electron
transparency. The image shows different grains, separated by grain boundaries. Why are
there discontinuities in the bend contours at the grain boundaries?

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Transmission Electron Microscopy for Materials Science

c) On this bright-field TEM image of a Ni3Al monophase alloy sample with an ordered gamma
prime cubic structure, two selected area aperture positions for recording diffraction patterns
are shown in red and blue.

i) The diffraction pattern for the position in red is shown on the left below, in inverted
contrast. In the box next to it, and at the same scale, sketch how the principle
features of the diffraction pattern for the position in blue should look like. Annotate
both patterns as needed, and explain your answer.

ii) If you make a dark-field image by selecting the strong diffracting beam in the
pattern on the left, how do you expect the image to look?

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d) On the bright-field TEM image below, another bend contour is indicated by the circle in red.
Compared to the bend contour indicated by the red circle in part c), what can you say about
the extinction distances of their corresponding diffracted beams? Explain your answer.

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Transmission Electron Microscopy for Materials Science

Assignment 6.2 (8 pt) – double diffraction

a) Below is shown a kinematically simulated TEM diffraction pattern for ZnO (hexagonal
wurtzite crystal structure) on a zone axis, with some of the diffraction spots indexed.
i) What is the zone axis of the pattern?
ii) On this figure (or on a copy of the figure), in another colour sketch any extra
diffraction spots that would be present from dynamical scattering, and index them.
iii) Give a g vector equation for producing one of the extra spots closest to the direct
beam using the one of the most direct possible double scattering events.

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Transmission Electron Microscopy for Materials Science

b) Below is shown an experimental selected area diffraction pattern from a ZnO crystal, on the
same zone axis, using inverted contrast.
i) In another colour, circle the diffraction spots that are exclusively present because of
double diffraction. Comment on their intensities compared to the other diffracted
beams.
ii) How could you experimentally confirm that they are created by double diffraction?

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Transmission Electron Microscopy for Materials Science

c) On the left is a diffraction pattern from a NiO grain on a [1 1 0] zone axis (face centred cubic
structure, a = 0.418 nm). On the right is another pattern after reduction of some of the NiO
grain to Ni (face centred cubic structure, a = 0.368 nm), which has grown in a cube-cube
epitaxial relationship to the NiO. Both patterns are shown with inverted contrast.
i) Compare the pattern on the right to that on the left. What is the term used for the
extra diffraction spots that have been produced by dynamical scattering?
ii) In the pattern on the right, circle in blue all the diffraction spots that do not require
double diffraction to be present.
iii) Based on the indexing of the reflections in the pattern on the left, give a g vector
mechanism that could create the diffraction spot circled in red in terms of just
g vector for NiO and one g vector for Ni. Use only the kinematically-positioned
spots on the pattern.