Contrast in the electron spectroscopic imaging mode of a TEM

The ratio of inelastic-to-elastic total cross-sections has been measured in an energy-filtering electron microscope for different elements. Formulae for the transmission of elastically and inelastically scattered electrons in part I were used to calculate the optimum conditions for a Z-ratio contrast in the electron spectroscopic imaging mode. Structure-sensitive contrast can be observed for all non-carbon atoms in biological sections when filtering with an energy loss at ΔE ～ 250 eV below the carbon K edge. Model experiments with evaporated layers of different elements on a carbon film allow measurement of the contrast increase. Filtering with the carbon plasmon loss shows a lower phase contrast than with zero-loss filtering. This can be explained by calculating contrast transfer functions for inelastically scattered electrons.