Modern electron microscopy systems are heavily reliant on software for data acquisition and analysis. DigitalMicrograph (DM) by Gatan Inc. is present on most TEM systems worldwide, owing to Gatan’s preeminence in imaging systems and electron energy loss spectrometers. DM is also found on SEMs which use Gatan hardware, such as cathodoluminescence systems. The hidden strength of DM is its scriptability. This allows users to create scripts ranging from simple image processing tools to full instrument control systems for sophisticated data acquisition.
Over the last decade, the author has written hundreds of DM scripts (freely available from www.dmscripting.com). Scripts can be incorporated into the DM interface as new menu items, and thereafter users can implement them effortlessly.
This talk will highlight some recently completed scripts which demonstrate just some of the additional capability which can be brought to bear by scripting:
Utility: A script for measuring microscope drift in both STEM and TEM mode is an invaluable aid for setting up a new microscope facility or for troubleshooting an existing one. It allows both the magnitude and direction of drift to be correlated with environmental variables, thus enabling improvements in performance.
Instrument Control: A rocking beam script enables conventional hollow cone illumination, but also unconventional beam precession. This enables the adverse effects of diffraction contrast on thickness and EFTEM maps to be reduced dramatically.
Data Analysis: A novel script for analyzing diffraction patterns, based on ellipse fitting, allows full pattern characterization including the measurement and correction of any elliptical distortion which may be present.