Nanocrystal size distribution analysis from transmission electron microscopy images. Issue 48 (23rd November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van Sebille, Martijn; van der Maaten, Laurens J. P.; Xie, Ling; Jarolimek, Karol; Santbergen, Rudi; van Swaaij, René A. C. M. M.; Leifer, Klaus; Zeman, Miro
• Is Part Of: Nanoscale. Volume 7:Issue 48(2015)
• Page Start: 20593
• Page End: 20606
• Publication Date: 2015-11-23
• Subjects: Nanoscience -- Periodicals; Nanotechnology -- Periodicals; 620.505
• DOI: 10.1039/c5nr06292f
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-3364

Abstract

Abstract : We propose a method to quickly detect and measure the nanocrystal size distribution from TEM images. Abstract : We propose a method, with minimal bias caused by user input, to quickly detect and measure the nanocrystal size distribution from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images using a combination of Laplacian of Gaussian filters and non-maximum suppression. We demonstrate the proposed method on bright-field TEM images of an a-SiC:H sample containing embedded silicon nanocrystals with varying magnifications and we compare the accuracy and speed with size distributions obtained by manual measurements, a thresholding method and PEBBLES. Finally, we analytically consider the error induced by slicing nanocrystals during TEM sample preparation on the measured nanocrystal size distribution and formulate an equation to correct this effect.