The origin of diffuse intensity in electron diffraction patterns

High-energy electrons strongly interact with the atomic structure and are very sensitive to deviations from the ideal three-dimensional structure; such deviations are reflected in reciprocal space by the presence of diffuse scattering. This diffuse scattering may hav different origins: thermal diffuse scattering related to soft modes, diffuse scatterin, associated with substitutional ordering or tilts of rigid octahedra and scattering related to lattice deformation or the formation of textures. Within the kinematical theory we deduce expressions for the diffuse intensity, which allow us to “translate” the presence of this diffuse intensity in reciprocal space into the formation of particular atom arrangements in real space. Examples of these different phenomena are provided. A combination of electron diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy allows to deduce whether the diffuse scattering has a static or a dynamic origin.