Quantitative Determination of High-Frequency Voltage Attenuation in an Electric-Pulse-Excited Stroboscopic Transmission Electron Microscope.

Abstract

High-frequency electric pulse signals are often applied to stimulate functional materials in devices. To investigate the relationship between materials structure and dynamic behavior under high-frequency electric excitation, the stroboscopic imaging mode is widely used in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). From a technical point of view, it is crucial to quantitatively determine high-frequency attenuation in an electric-pulse-excited stroboscopic TEM. Here, we propose the quantitative method to evaluate the voltage attenuation by using magnification variation of defocused bright-field transmission electron microscopy images in a stroboscopic mode when applying high-frequency electric pulse signals onto a model system of two opposite tungsten tips. The negative voltage excitation possesses higher high-frequency voltage attenuation than the positive voltage excitation due to the possible nonreciprocal transmission of the triangle waves within the circuit between the biasing sample holder and the arbitrary waveform generator. Our approach of high-frequency attenuation determination provides the experimental foundation for quantitative analysis on the dynamic evolution of materials structure and functionality under electric pulse stimuli.