Subtle spatial structures are often reflected on higher-order correlations.
Fluctuation microscopy is a good method for detecting such spatial structu
res in disordered materials, because the method detects the contribution of
the fourth-order density distribution function. We propose an improvement
for fluctuation microscopy that increases its sensitivity to subtle spatial
structures by enhancing the contributions of both the third- and the fourt
h-order density cumulant functions to the observable. We demonstrate numeri
cally that the proposed method provides better detection of subtle structur
al changes than the original approach with improved stability against exper
imental noise. Although we illustrate the method in terms of transmission e
lectron microscopy, it is not confined to this microscopy. [S0163-1829(99)0
7925-4].