LINEAR IMAGING AND DIFFRACTION OF AN AMORPHOUS FILM

It is experimentally established that one can use linear imaging theory with implied kinematical diffraction theory to understand the high resolution image of an amorphous material of thickness 10-20 nm. It is also established that an equivalent thickness of a crystalline material cannot be understood by these models, but instead requires non-linear imaging theory and dynamical diffraction. It is shown here that an amorphous material is a special case where the non-linear and dynamical diffraction solutions reduce to simpler linear and kinematical forms.