A technique for high-precision drift correction in electron microscopes

We propose a technique for improving the image quality of electron microscopes, which are widely used for the observation and analysis of microscopic structures. To improve the visual recognition of frame addition images of electron microscopes, it is necessary to perform correlation calculations in order to line up the frame images and eliminate the small positional offsets (drifts) between them. However, since the individual frames have a very low signal-to-noise ratio, it is difficult to estimate these drifts stably. To address this problem, we propose a phase-only correlation method that uses a combination of noise suppression and highly accurate estimation of phase images based on complex wavelet transform. By implementing this method in a parallel processor, we have made it possible to observe fine structures with high definition in real time (30 frame s(-1)).

Automated summary

We propose a method to improve image quality and positional accuracy by using correlation calculations, noise suppression, and complex wavelet transform in electron microscopes.