Do you believe that atoms stay in place when you observe them in HREM?

Recent advancements in aberration-corrected electron microscopy allow for an evaluation of unexpectedly large atom displacements beyond a resolution limit of ∼0.5 Å, which are found to be dose-rate dependent in high resolution images. In this paper we outline a consistent description of the electron scattering process, which explains these unexpected phenomena. Our approach links thermal diffuse scattering to electron beam-induced object excitation and relaxation processes, which strongly contribute to the image formation process. The effect can provide an explanation for the well-known contrast mismatch (“Stobbs factor”) between image calculations and experiments.