Accurate, non-contact temperature measurement with high spatial resolution is essential for understanding thermal behavior in integrated nanoscale devices and heterogeneous interfaces. However, existing techniques are often limited by the need for physical contact or insufficient spatial resolution for the measurement of local temperature and mapping its distribution. Here, we showcase the direct temperature measurement of graphene with nanometer spatial resolution in transmission electron microscopy. In experiments, combining a scanning nanobeam with precession electron diffraction offers the collection of kinemetic diffraction from a local area at the nanometer scale. In analysis, we use a pre-calculated, sample-specific structure-factor-based correction method to enable the linear fitting of the diffraction intensities, allowing the determination of the Debye-Waller factor as a function of temperature at the precision of 10-4{\AA}2/{\deg}C. With the high spatial resolution and measurement precision, the temperature and thermal vibration mapping further reveal the influence of graphene lattice parameters and thickness on the Debye-Waller factor, providing valuable insights into the vibrational properties impacted by temperature, lattice structure, and graphene layer thickness.
@article{arxiv.2504.09937,
title = {Probing Temperature at Nanoscale through Thermal Vibration Characterization using Scanning Precession Electron Diffraction},
author = {Kun Yang and Chao Zhang and Chengwei Wu and Qian Du and Bingzhi Li and Zhen Fang and Liang Li and Jianbo Wu and Tianru Wu and Hui Wang and Tao Deng and Wenpei Gao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.09937},
year = {2026}
}