Towards artifact-free atomic-resolution elemental mapping with electron energy-loss spectroscopy

Atomic-resolution elemental maps of materials obtained using energy-loss spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) can contain artifacts associated with strong elastic scattering of the STEM probe. We demonstrate how recent advances in instrumentation enable a simple and robust approach to reduce such artifacts and produce atomic-resolution elemental maps amenable to direct visual interpretation. The concept is demonstrated experimentally for a (BaTiO3)8/(SrTiO3)4heterostructure, and simulations are used for quantitative analysis. We also demonstrate that the approach can be used to eliminate the atomic-resolution elastic contrast in maps obtained from lower-energy excitations, such as plasmon excitations.