High-angle hollow-cone dark-field or Z-contrast imaging was used to suppress dynamic contributions, such as bend or extinction contours, to electron imaging. By using a multiple scattering model, it was possible to interpret the image intensities quantitatively and to analyze the specimen composition at the nm scale without requiring specialized detectors such as energy energy-loss spectroscopy or energy dispersive spectroscopy. The method was applied to the interdiffusion of Cu-Au couples. It was found that the measured thin-film interdiffusion coefficients were comparable to published data on bulk diffusion in this system That is, the coefficient for interdiffusion between polycrystalline Cu and polycrystalline Au was 4.7 x 10-18m2/s and the coefficient for interdiffusion between monocrystalline Cu and polycrystalline Au was 9.4 x 10-19m2/s.

Measurement of Interdiffusion by High-Angle Hollow Cone Illumination J.C.Ewert, F.Hartung, G.Schmitz: Applied Physics Letters, 1997, 71[10], 1311-3