However, the technique of annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM), which is typically used on material specimens, more effectively suppresses phase and diffraction contrast, providing image intensities that vary with the projected mass-thickness of samples up to micrometres thick for materials with low atomic number. ADF-STEM also acts as a low-pass filter, eliminating the edge-enhancing artifacts common in BF/HRTEM.
This approach of annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM), which is typically used on material samples, provides more effective contrast reduction and image enhancement, resulting in intensities that correlate with sample thickness up to a few micrometres for low atomic number materials. ADF-STEM also serves as a filtering mechanism, eliminating the typical edge artifacts seen in BF/HRTEM.