Imaging defect complexes in scanning transmission electron microscopy: Impact of depth, structural relaxation, and temperature investigated by simulations.

•Voronoi integration is shown to be a simple and fast technique for finding defects such as the Inzn-Vzn defect complex in ZnO on high-resolution STEM images.•Exploring the STEM contrast as a function of acceptance angles is shown to maximise chance of detecting defects.•A combination of HAADF and MAADF STEM reveals lateral and depth position of the defect.•STEM on models structurally relaxed by DFT show significantly different intensities compared to static models.•Relaxed models show varying intensity on neighbouring columns when sample is cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature.