Possibilities of Modern Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy for Studying Boron Carbides

A promising method of scanning transmission electron microscopy is the use of integrated differential phase contrast. Its advantages include high sensitivity to light elements, almost linear relation between the generated image contrast and atomic numbers of Z atoms contained in a sample, noise suppression, and much more. Using the modeling and mathematical processing, prospects of this technique for studying the crystal structure of materials consisting of light atoms have been analyzed by the example of boron carbide polytypes. It is shown that the sensitivity of the technique makes it possible to distinguish columns of boron atoms from columns consisting of carbon. Recommendations on using this technique for analyzing the structures consisting of light elements are formulated.