Abstract text (incl. figure legends and references)

Unlike "conventional" STEM, 4D STEM allows the electron microscopist to not restrict data acquisition to one specific technique. The acquisition of a full-frame diffraction pattern per probe position allows one to reconstruct different images at a later time, including integrating over different scattering angles with virtural detectors, mapping electromagnetic fields via DPC or CoM based methods, or mapping crystallographic orientation and strain via diffraction pattern identification. Additionally, such a 4D dataset can be used for ptychography, which provides for instance extremely high dose efficiency and light atom detection.

The bottleneck for 4D STEM acquisition is the camera, which has previously been a severe limitation for the technique. The camera needs high sensitivity, a large dynamic range, low noise and a very high speed. Ideally, it should not require slower scans than conventional imaging modes in order to minimize problems with beam-damage, contamination and drift. High speed also facilitates high quality parallel acquisition of conventional signals such as ADF or secondary electron images.

We have tested the latest generation hybrid-pixel direct electron detector DECTRIS ARINA with our probe-corrected 200kV JEOL NeoARM. The ARINA fulfills the requirements of high sensitivity and a very low noise level. Its high counting speed, up to 10pA per detector pixel, allows simultaneous acquisition of both the intense BF disk and far less intense higher angle scattering – an important prerequisite for being able to construct all possible signals from the 4D data. Very importantly, the DECTRIS ARINA reaches very high frame rates: while at a full resolution of 192x192 pixels, a frame rate of 20kHz is possible, and even up to 120kHz is possible at a resolution of 96x96 pixels, corresponding to a dwell-time shorter than 10us.

We performed our first experiments with the ARINA with beam-tolerant Si, SrTiO₃ and SmB₆ for STEM imaging, permalloy and NdMn₂Ge₂ for DPC/CoM and metals for orientation mapping. Already these first experiments prove ARINA is suitable for STEM imaging, DPC/CoM and orientation mapping. Ptychography results from both the materials and life sciences will be presented under normal and low-dose conditions. Thanks to the high dynamic range, high sensitivity, low noise and very high frame-rate, the Dectris ARINA is very versatile and is perfectly suited for the above-mentioned very diverse applications, about which we will present an overview.