Importance of TEM sample thickness for measuring strain fields

Abstract

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has emerged as a valuable tool for assessing and mapping strain fields within materials. By directly analyzing local atomic spacing variations, TEM enables the precise measurement of local strain with high spatial resolution. However, it is standard practice to use thin specimens in TEM analysis to ensure electron transparency and minimize issues such as projection artifacts and contributions from multiple scattering. This raises an important question regarding the extent of structural modification, such as strain relaxation, induced in thin samples due to the increased surface-to-volume ratio and the thinning process. In this study, we conducted a systematic investigation to quantify the influence of TEM sample thickness on the residual strain field using deformed Fe-based and Zr-based metallic glasses as model systems. The samples were gradually thinned from 300 nm to 70 nm, and the same area was examined using 4D-STEM with identical imaging settings. Our results demonstrate that thinning the sample affects the atomic configuration at both the short-range (SR) and medium-range (MR) scales. Consequently, when the sample is thinned too much, it no longer preserves the native deformation structure. These findings highlight the critical importance of maintaining sufficient TEM sample thickness for obtaining meaningful and accurate strain measurements.