Assessing quantitative phase reliability in electron ptychography using a twisted trilayer WS2 thickness staircase
Abstract
The phase of an electron wave is sensitive to the local electrostatic environment and can therefore provide information about atomic-scale structural variations. In electron ptychography, however, specimen thickness, multiple scattering and projected atomic overlap can complicate the quantitative interpretation of the reconstructed phase. Here, we use a twisted trilayer WS2 thickness staircase containing monolayer, bilayer and trilayer regions as an internal reference, with all regions measured under identical experimental conditions. The mean W-column phase increases by approximately 13.2% from the monolayer to the bilayer region, compared with only 4.7% from the bilayer to the trilayer region, revealing a nonlinear thickness dependence. W-S overlap has little effect on the W-column phase, whereas short-range projected W-W overlap increases it by approximately 8-9%. These results provide a benchmark for evaluating quantitative phase measurement in multilayer WS2 and for assessing phase-based mapping of local electrostatic potential, charge-density and three-dimensional atomic-scale polarization.
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BibTeX
@misc{bao2026assessing,
title = {{Assessing quantitative phase reliability in electron ptychography using a twisted trilayer WS2 thickness staircase}},
author = {Hu Bao and Qilong Feng and Kun Ye and Tianyu Xue and Stephen J. Pennycook and Yihan Zhu and Anmin Nie and Shoucong Ning and Jing Tao},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.13115},
eprint = {2610.13115},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13115},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Assessing quantitative phase reliability in electron ptychography using a twisted trilayer WS2 thickness staircase
AU - Hu Bao
AU - Qilong Feng
AU - Kun Ye
AU - Tianyu Xue
AU - Stephen J. Pennycook
AU - Yihan Zhu
AU - Anmin Nie
AU - Shoucong Ning
AU - Jing Tao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.13115
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13115
AB - The phase of an electron wave is sensitive to the local electrostatic environment and can therefore provide information about atomic-scale structural variations. In electron ptychography, however, specimen thickness, multiple scattering and projected atomic overlap can complicate the quantitative interpretation of the reconstructed phase. Here, we use a twisted trilayer WS2 thickness staircase containing monolayer, bilayer and trilayer regions as an internal reference, with all regions measured under identical experimental conditions. The mean W-column phase increases by approximately 13.2% from the monolayer to the bilayer region, compared with only 4.7% from the bilayer to the trilayer region, revealing a nonlinear thickness dependence. W-S overlap has little effect on the W-column phase, whereas short-range projected W-W overlap increases it by approximately 8-9%. These results provide a benchmark for evaluating quantitative phase measurement in multilayer WS2 and for assessing phase-based mapping of local electrostatic potential, charge-density and three-dimensional atomic-scale polarization.
ER -