Prospects for aberration corrected electron precession

Recent developments in aberration control in the TEM have yielded a tremendous enhancement of direct imaging capabilities for studying atomic structures. However, aberration correction also has substantial benefits for achieving ultra-resolution in the TEM through reciprocal space techniques. Several tools are available that allow very accurate detection of the electron distribution in surfaces allowing precise atomic-scale characterization through statistical inversion techniques from diffraction data. The precession technique now appears to extend this capability to the bulk. This article covers some of the progress in this area and details requirements for a next-generation analytical diffraction instrument. An analysis of the contributions offered by aberration correction for precision electron precession is included.