Unsupervised deep denoising for four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy

By simultaneously achieving high spatial and angular sampling resolution, four dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D STEM) is enabling analysis techniques that provide great insight into the atomic structure of materials. Applying these techniques to scientifically and technologically significant beam-sensitive materials remains challenging because the low doses needed to minimise beam damage lead to noisy data. We demonstrate an unsupervised deep learning model that leverages the continuity and coupling between the probe position and the electron scattering distribution to denoise 4D STEM data. By restricting the network complexity it can learn the geometric flow present but not the noise. Through experimental and simulated case studies, we demonstrate that denoising as a preprocessing step enables 4D STEM analysis techniques to succeed at lower doses, broadening the range of materials that can be studied using these powerful structure characterization techniques.