AbstractBecause of the high brightness of the cold field emission source used in a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) instrument, it is possible to focus electrons to a cross‐over of width 3Å or less and, with a suitable detection system, to obtain diffraction patterns from specimen regions of this size or greater. Coherent interference effects are visible in shadow images (in‐line holograms) and in convergent beam diffraction patterns. Special techniques have been developed for gathering information from the diffraction patterns for application to the study of the structures of crystal defects, crystal surfaces and small particles. Possibilities have been explored for holographic reconstruction from shadow im