Differential quantitative analysis of background structure in energy-filtered convergent-beam electron diffraction patterns

Measurements of electronic structure in solids by quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction (QCBED) will not reach their ultimate accuracy or precision until the contribution of the background to the reflections in energy-filtered CBED patterns is fully accounted for. Apart from the well known diffuse background that arises from thermal diffuse scattering of electrons, there is a component that has a much higher angular frequency. The present work reports experimental evidence that this component mimics the angular distribution of the elastically scattered electrons within each reflection. A differential approach to QCBED is suggested as a means of quantitatively accounting for the background in energy-filtered CBED data.