Determination of the linear attenuation range of electron transmission through film specimens

We have investigated the linear attenuation range of electron transmission through film specimens and its dependence on the electron energy, the acceptance half-angle of a detector or an objective aperture, and specimen properties, in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) and the conventional transmission electron microscope (TEM). Electron transmission in the bright-field mode was calculated by the Monte Carlo simulation of electron scattering, and its range of the linear attenuation in film thickness was then determined by a linear least squares fit. The corresponding linear thickness range was shown to increase with the electron energy and the acceptance half-angle, although it decreased with the increase in the atomic number of specimen materials. Under the condition of a 300 kV STEM or a 3 MV ultra-high voltage electron microscope (ultra-HVEM), the linear attenuation range could extend to several microns for light specimen materials, and this was validated by experimental data in the ultra-HVEM. The presented results can be helpful for accurately measuring the specimen thickness or mass from electron transmission, and estimating the deviation of electron transmission from linearity when tilting a specimen in electron tomography.