Multislice electron ptychography reconstruction in erbium implanted silicon carbide
Data files
Jul 30, 2026 version files 6.26 GB
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Archive.zip
6.26 GB
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README.md
3.08 KB
Abstract
Here, we use multislice electron ptychography to quantify damage introduced by ion implantation of Er into 4H-SiC. Comparing reconstructed volumes from the experiment (each 2,000 nm3) along the implantation direction, the crystal damage is quantified and compared to pristine SiC. Using simulations, we establish that the implantation-induced static displacements limit both Er dopant and silicon vacancy detection. The corresponding damage in the experiment is found to occur up to a depth of 100 nm and significantly deeper than expected from implantation simulations, ignoring crystallography. Beyond this depth, we show that silicon vacancies can be identified within the sampled volume and used to measure their local strain. Overall, these results underscore the power of multislice electron ptychography to quantify the impacts of implantation and as a tool to help guide electronic device process optimization.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.547d7wmjn
Description of the data and file structure
Files and variables
File: Archive.zip
Description:
'40 nm' and '120 nm' are the datasets obtained at 40 nm and 120 nm implantation depth.
The zip file includes the experiment 4D-STEM acquisition (.raw) and reconstructed outputs containing objects and probes (.mat).
For reconstruction, the cSAXS ptychography MATLAB package with modifications by Zhen Chen and Yi Jiang was utilized for the reconstruction (https://github.com/yijiang1/fold_slice), developed by the Science IT and the coherent X-ray scattering (CXS) groups at Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland (https://www.psi.ch/en/sls/csaxs/software).
This dataset includes four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) data in .raw format and reconstructed datasets in .mat format. The reconstructions were obtained through iterative multislice electron ptychography.
Each .raw file contains a 4D-STEM dataset consisting of a two-dimensional real-space scan and a two-dimensional diffraction pattern recorded at each scan position. The raw datasets can be viewed or processed using software such as:
- 4D-STEM Explorer for macOS
- The EMPAD-G2 Raw Reader package
- Raw-data import plugins for Fiji
- Custom Python scripts capable of reading binary raw files.
The .mat files contain the outputs of the multislice electron ptychography reconstruction, including the reconstructed object, probe, diagnostic outputs, and reconstruction parameters. The principal variables are described below. More detailed information about the reconstruction output format is available in the fold_slice documentation.
- Object: Reconstructed complex object transmission function. The magnitude represents the transmission amplitude, while the phase represents the reconstructed phase shift. For multislice reconstructions, the object contains a series of depth-resolved object slices.
- Probe: Reconstructed complex incident illumination wavefield. The third dimension represents the mixed-state probe modes when multiple incoherent probe modes are used.
- Outputs: Reconstruction diagnostics and derived results, such as convergence metrics, refined scan positions, and iteration histories.
- p: Final reconstruction parameter and run-state structure saved by the reconstruction engine.
The acquisition parameters we used for the reconstruction are:
4D-STEM datasets were collected on a 128×128 pixel EMPAD detector with a dose of 3.24×105 e−/Å2, scan step size of 0.44 Å/pixel, and diffraction pixel size of 0.78 mrad/pixel using a Thermo Fisher Scientific Themis Z microscope operating at 200 kV. Sample thickness, approximately 18 nm, was measured using PACBED analysis. Here, we provide two datasets, which were obtained at the implantation depths of 40 nm and 120 nm.
4D-STEM datasets were collected on a 128×128 pixel EMPAD detector with a dose of 3.24×105 e−/Å2, a scan step size of 0.44 Å/pixel, and a diffraction pixel size of 0.78 mrad/pixel using a Thermo Fisher Scientific Themis Z microscope operating at 200 kV. Sample thickness, approximately 18 nm, was measured using PACBED analysis. Here, we provide two datasets, which were obtained at the implantation depths of 40 nm and 120 nm.
The cSAXS ptychography MATLAB package with modifications by Zhen Chen and Yi Jiang was utilized for the reconstruction. Reconstructions used 40 object slices (1 nm each), eight incoherent probe modes were considered, and diffraction patterns were zero-padded to 256×256 pixels to enhance resolution.