Abstract
Fast pixelated detectors in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) enable acquisition of a two-dimensional diffraction pattern at every probe position, known as four-dimensional STEM (4D-STEM). In 4D-STEM, each measured intensity has dual character, forming a pixel in diffraction space, and equally a pixel in real space. Applying binary masks in diffraction space is often used to produce ‘virtual’ bright-field or annular-dark field images. Here we present a complementary method for atomic-resolution 4D-STEM, using correlation between real-space images (templates) and the data to create weighted masks in diffraction space. These weighted masks provide significant improvement over binary masks, and can produce images specific to different types of atom columns. We demonstrate this approach by obtaining separate high contrast images of Li and O columns in LiFePO4 and O columns in PbTiO3. This method provides a computationally straightforward route to probe 4D-STEM data, and is particularly effective for specimens of moderate thickness where multiple scattering produces strong correlations in diffraction patterns.
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Data availability
The workflow, including the example codes running on both experiment and simulation are currently available at https://github.com/WarwickMicroscopy. All relevant data are available from the contributing author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant EP/V028596/1, the facilities at the University of Warwick Electron Microscopy Research Technology Platform (EMRTP), and useful discussions with Prof. B Mendis on links to ALCHEMI. Yining Xie would acknowledge the foundation from the China Scholarship Council (CSC).
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Simulations and 4D-STEM data acquisition were primarily performed by Y.X. with the guidance of E.M. The LiFePO4 powder was synthesised by L.F.P., and the PbTiO3 crystal was grown by M.A. TEM specimens were prepared by Y.X. and R.B. The project was supervised by A.M.S. and R.B. The manuscript was mainly written by Y.X. and R.B. with suggestions from all authors.
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Communications Materials thanks Hamish Brown, Benedikt Haas, Anton Gladyshev, and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
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Xie, Y., Moynihan, E., Alexe, M. et al. Template-Derived Masks for 4D-STEM. Commun Mater (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-026-01134-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-026-01134-9
