Abstract
This study has found that the Z-contrast of aberration-corrected high-angle annular dark field-scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) images of solute enriched layers in Mg-TM-RE (TM:Zn, RE:Y, Gd) alloys is sensitive to the imaging conditions: the defocus and the focal depth. Consequently, the depth position of solute enriched layers in the projected direction shows strong effect on the Z-contrast around each layer. The blurring of the Z-contrast is preferentially observed in both sides region along (0001)Mg basal planes. The boundary position between HCP- and FCC-type stacking sequence at edge regions does not change by defocus. The permissible defocus amount is comparable to the focal depth. The aberration-corrected HAADF-STEM has short focal depth less than 10 nm, so that it is critical for interpreting image contrast that the thin foil thickness and the depth position of the nano-size structure such as the solute enriched layers. In turn, it can be presumed, by the blurring of the Z-contrast, that the depth position of the solute enriched layers in the projected direction. Thus, the focal depth of aberration-corrected HAADF-STEM is quite sensitive to the depth position of solute enriched layers in the thin foil of specimens and the defocus of the electron probe, so that the imaging condition of aberration-corrected HAADF-STEM is critical in order to interpret correctly the Z-contrast of the images.
