Electron microscopy guide

Tutorials:

TEM alignment

STEM alignment

Wave interference

Research:

Diffractive imaginging

Home

Learn about key concepts in electron wave theory - without lots of mathematics...

  1. The electron wave: The corkscrew analogy
  2. Wave interference
  3. : How electron waves add together and how we measure intensity
  4. Phase threads: An easy way of measuring the phase of wave components
  5. Elementary wave types: Spherical waves and plane waves - we can build up any sort of wave out of such elementary waves.
  6. Diffraction at an obstacle: A simple water wave analogy
  7. The calculus of wave interference: How we add together several waves, according to the rules of geometry
  8. Young's slits: The simplest example of wave interference
  9. Huygen's principle: The most useful concept in wave propagation
  10. Fresnel fringes: A qualitative description of something we see everywhere in electron images
  11. The Fraunhofer and Fresnel approximations: All to do with geometry...
  12. The Fourier transform: An essential element of electron optics explained in very simple terms using a mechanical analogy
  13. The sinc function: Used extensively in Fourier analysis theory: a geometrical explanation
  14. The diffraction grating: The first step in understanding diffraction from a crystal
  15. The Fourier transform of the diffraction grating: The first step in understanding reciprocal space
  16. Crystallography: A super-simple introduction to diffraction from 3D objects
  17. 3D waves and scattering: The geometry of the scattering vector in diffraction, plus some thoughts on 3D plane waves
  18. Bragg's law: Scattering from planes of atoms in real space
  19. Reciprocal space: A qualitative Fourier approach to understand this source of great confusion
  20. The Ewald sphere: The main reciprocal-space construction for diffraction scattering in 3D
  21. The convolution integral: An essential concept in imaging theory

Back to Home Page