Abstract A scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)-based energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) tomography method is developed for accurate three-dimensional (3-D) visualization of nanoscale composite microstructures. This approach overcomes the limitations of conventional STEM tomography for microstructures containing crystalline phases with minimal difference in atomic numbers. The STEM-EDX tomography method was utilized to generate reliable 3-D reconstructions of nano-fibrous silicon (average diameter ≈ 30 nm) uniformly embedded in Aluminum matrix—a morphology previously ambiguous in two-dimensional microstructural characterization. Further validation has been done by local atom probe tomography reconstruction. Graphical abstract
Ghosh et al. (Tue,) studied this question.