05486 IUPAC Gold Book - scanning transmission electron microscopy 10.1351/goldbook.S05486 S05486 current acronym: STEM mentioned: TEM 1 A special TEM-technique in which an electron transparent sample is bombarded with a finely focused electron beam (typically of a diameter of less than $\pu{10 nm}$) which can be scanned across the specimen or rocked across the optical axis and transmitted, secondary, back scattered and diffracted electrons as well as the characteristic X-ray spectrum can be observed. STEM essentially provides high resolution imaging of the inner microstructure and the surface of a thin sample (or small particles), as well as the possibility of chemical and structural characterization of micrometer and sub-micrometer domains through evaluation of the X-ray spectra and the electron diffraction pattern. diffraction https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/D01711 PAC, 1983, 55, 2023. 'Nomenclature, symbols and units recommended for in situ microanalysis (Provisional)' on page 2025 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac198355122023) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05486/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05486/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05486/plain Citation: 'scanning transmission electron microscopy' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.S05486 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-05-18T01:23:31+00:00