a, A converged sub-nm electron beam rasters over the sample, in this case a thin film of a semicrystalline semiconducting polymer, collecting local intensity measurements and local diffraction patterns. b, The big dataset obtained from the 4D-STEM is then synchronized and mined to provide orientation maps representing the direction of the brightest reflection at each point. c, The orientation map can be directly translated into flow-line maps that illustrate the orientation and extent of the molecular chains. Panel c reproduced from ref. 2, Springer Nature Ltd.

a, A converged sub-nm electron beam rasters over the sample, in this case a thin film of a semicrystalline semiconducting polymer, collecting local intensity measurements and local diffraction patterns. b, The big dataset obtained from the 4D-STEM is then synchronized and mined to provide orientation maps representing the direction of the brightest reflection at each point. c, The orientation map can be directly translated into flow-line maps that illustrate the orientation and extent of the molecular chains. Panel c reproduced from ref. 2, Springer Nature Ltd.