Warwick electron microscopy datasets

Adaptive partial scanning transmission electron microscopy with reinforcement learning

Compressed sensing can decrease scanning transmission electron microscopy electron dose and scan time with minimal information loss. Traditionally, sparse scans used in compressed sensing sample a static set of probing locations. However, dynamic scans that adapt to specimens are expected to be able to match or surpass the performance of static scans as static scans are a subset of possible dynamic scans. Thus, we present a prototype for a contiguous sparse scan system that piecewise adapts scan paths to specimens as they are scanned. Sampling directions for scan segments are chosen by a recurrent neural network (RNN) based on previously observed scan segments. The RNN is trained by reinforcement learning to cooperate with a feedforward convolutional neural network that completes the sparse scans. This paper presents our learning policy, experiments, and example partial scans, and discusses future research directions. Source code, pretrained models, and training data is openly accessible at https://github.com/Jeffrey-Ede/adaptive-scans.

Deep learning in electron microscopy

Deep learning is transforming most areas of science and technology, including electron microscopy. This review paper offers a practical perspective aimed at developers with limited familiarity. For context, we review popular applications of deep learning in electron microscopy. Following, we discuss hardware and software needed to get started with deep learning and interface with electron microscopes. We then review neural network components, popular architectures, and their optimization. Finally, we discuss future directions of deep learning in electron microscopy.

Partial Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy with Deep Learning

Compressed sensing algorithms are used to decrease electron microscope scan time and electron beam exposure with minimal information loss. Following successful applications of deep learning to compressed sensing, we have developed a two-stage multiscale generative adversarial neural network to complete realistic 512 × 512 scanning transmission electron micrographs from spiral, jittered gridlike, and other partial scans. For spiral scans and mean squared error based pre-training, this enables electron beam coverage to be decreased by 17.9× with a 3.8% test set root mean squared intensity error, and by 87.0× with a 6.2% error. Our generator networks are trained on partial scans created from a new dataset of 16227 scanning transmission electron micrographs. High performance is achieved with adaptive learning rate clipping of loss spikes and an auxiliary trainer network. Our source code, new dataset, and pre-trained models are publicly available.