Simulation of high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy images of large nanostructures

High angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) is a powerful tool to quantify size, shape, position, and composition of nano-objects with the assessment of image simulation. Due to the high computational requirements needed, nowadays it can only be applied to a few unit cells in standard computers. To overpass this limitation, a parallel software (SICSTEM) has been developed. This software can afford HAADF-STEM image simulations of nanostructures composed of several hundred thousand atoms in manageable time. The usefulness of this tool is exemplified by simulating a HAADF-STEM image of an InAs nanowire.