Atomic Imaging in ADF STEM coupled with EELS

The need of high spatial resolution information on materials has been continuously increasing in the last years, as the efforts are more and more oriented toward nano-technology. TEM has demonstrated in these years to be not only an instrument to directly achieve morphological and structural information at atomic resolution but also the ideal environment to perform spectroscopic studies at the highest spatial resolution. The ultimate resolution is now very close as our instruments are approaching to sub-angstrom resolution. In particular, STEM is able to achieve high angle annular dark field incoherent imaging at atomic resolution. This technique was once restricted to dedicated STEM equipment but in the last few years FEG TEMs with STEM attachment have shown the capability to achieve atomic resolution and are now available for a large scientific community. The use of a STEM with a small probe is ideal for high spatially resolved spectroscopic experiments. Nevertheless, can we really expect EELS to be achievable from a single column? An introduction to high angle annular dark field atomic resolution imaging and spectroscopy will be given and some relevant application will be shown.