A method for the solution of the phase problem in electron microscopy

A method is given for the evaluation, in transmission electron microscopy, of the amplitude and phase from the intensity distribution of an electron micrograph. The method requires a minimum of two micrographs taken under different defocus conditions. The iterative scheme requires only the relative defocus between micrographs, and the procedure is valid both in bright-field and dark-field microscopy for any specified coherence of the electron source. Assumptions on the scattering properties of the specimen, such as the weak-phase-weak-amplitude object, are not required. For a complete determination of the amplitude-phase distribution for electron transmission through the specimen, the electron micrograph must be corrected for the effect of lens aberrations and defocusing to give the electron wavefunction immediately after transmission; only in the case of a weak-phase object can this wavefunction be directly related to the projected potential distribution in the object. Inelastic electron scattering is explicitly omitted from the analysis presented.