Characteristics and Application of Temperature-Field Emitters

Author(s):  
N. Tamura ◽  
T. Goto ◽  
Y. Harada

On account of its high brightness, the field emission electron source has the advantage that it provides the conventional electron microscope with highly coherent illuminating system and that it directly improves the, resolving power of the scanning electron microscope. The present authors have reported some results obtained with a 100 kV field emission electron microscope.It has been proven, furthermore, that the tungsten emitter as a temperature field emission source can be utilized with a sufficient stability under a modest vacuum of 10-8 ~ 10-9 Torr. The present paper is concerned with an extension of our study on the characteristics of the temperature field emitters.

Author(s):  
M. Iwatsuki ◽  
Y. Kokubo ◽  
Y. Harada

On accout of its high brightness, small optical source size, and minimal energy spread, the field emission gun (FEG) has the advantage that it provides the conventional transmission electron microscope (TEM) with a highly coherent illumination system and directly improves the resolving power and signal-to-noise ratio of the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The FEG is generally classified into two types; the cold field emission (C-FEG) and thermal field emission gun (T-FEG). The former, in which a field emitter is used at the room temperature, was successfully developed as an electron source for the SEM. The latter, in which the emitter is heated to the temperature range of 1000-1800°K, was also proved to be very suited as an electron source for the TEM, as well as for the SEM. Some characteristics of the two types of the FEG have been studied and reported by many authors. However, the results of the respective types have been obtained separately under different experimental conditions.


Author(s):  
A. Tonomura ◽  
T. Komoda

We have developed a field emission electron microscope. Although field emission gun requires ultra high vacuum and skillful technique, it brings about the favorable characteristics of high brightness and small energy spread. This characteristics will enable a significant progress in coherent electron optics and high resolution electron microscopy, especially in electron beam holography.Its column is Hitachi HU-11C Electron Microscope modified for ultra high vacuum operation, and it is evacuated with five ion pumps. Field emission gun is divided into two parts and is evacuated differentially with two ion pumps and a sublimation pump. The final pressures in these rooms are 5x10-10 Torr and 5x10-8 Torr respectively.


Author(s):  
L. M. Welter ◽  
V. J. Coates

A compact field emission scanning electron microscope has been developed and modeled after the optical microscope. The new instrument consists of the field emission electron gun, an externally adjustable aperture strip containing four different hole sizes, an electromagnetic single deflection system, an electromagnetic stigmator with independent magnitude and amplitude control, an ion pumped specimen chamber, and a television readout system. No magnetic lenses are used.The field emission electron gun incorporates an electrode system which simultaneously accelerates and focuses the electrons drawn from a field emission source. Several improvements have been made in the basic gun to provide for higher tip stability and reliability. A unique pumping scheme has been incorporated in the gun to provide tip region pressures in the order of 10-9 Torr and below so that stable field emission can be routinely obtained.


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (S2) ◽  
pp. 874-875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Ochoa ◽  
Eric F. Erbe ◽  
Jeffery S. Pettis ◽  
William P. Wergin

Mites, the second largest arthropod group after insects, occupy every conceivable terrestrial and aquatic habitat in our environment. They feed on plants, infest food products such as meat, cheese and grains, parasitize invertebrates and vertebrates, and transmit fungal, bacterial, rickettsial and viral diseases. Estimates indicate that as many as 1,000,000 species of mites may exist; however, partly because of their microscopic size, only about 40,000 species have been described and classified. During the last 30 years, researchers have increasingly utilized the greater magnification and depth of field available in a conventional scanning electron microscope (SEM) to supplement descriptions of mites that were historically based on light microscopic observations. In addition, this technique provided a better understanding of the relative positions and functionality of organs and improved attempts to elucidate their biology. However, before mites can be imaged with a conventional SEM, they are typically chemically fixed, dehydrated and/or thoroughly dried.


Author(s):  
S. Saito ◽  
Y. Nakaizumi ◽  
T. Nagatani ◽  
H. Todokoro

We have developed an ultra high resolution scanning electron mícroscope utílízíng a fíeld emíssíon electron source (Fig.1). This instrument has a guaranteed resolution of 2 nm in the secondary electron image mode and it has incorporated a microprocessor control for optimized operating conditions and maximum ease of operation by various automated functions. The microprocessor control system includes field emission electron gun control, electron optical system control, and video signal control. The field emission electron gun control system includes flashing operation which is used to clean the tip surface by heating for a very short time, high voltage operation of accelerating voltage (V0) and tip voltage (V1), correction of emission current which changes with time, and correction of virtual source position which changes with a voltage ratio V0/V1. We have automated these series of operations by developing an auto FE gun control system. Fig. 2 shows details of this system.


Author(s):  
T. Someya ◽  
T. Goto ◽  
Y. Harada ◽  
M. Watanabe

The field emission source is one of the most important factors to improve the image contrast in extremely high resolution electron microscopy since it provides high brightness, very small electron source and low energy spread of electrons. In scanning electron microscopy, although the field emission source has been proved to be advantageous in the range of relatively low accelerating voltages, those capable of operating at higher accelerating voltages are now in great demand in order to improve the resolving power up to 3Å or better. In the present work, we have developed a field emission electron gun which is used with an electron microscope of accelerating voltages up to 100KV.In this development, we first made efforts to improve the method of supplying high voltages in order to eliminate the surge influence on the field emission source which are easily destroyed by a high voltage surge produced by the discharge between electrodes constituting the electron gun.


Author(s):  
J. Endo ◽  
T. Kawasaki ◽  
T. Masuda ◽  
A. Tonomura

A field-emission electron gun is one of the most epoch-making technologies in an electron microscopic world. In a transmission electron microscope, a high brightness of this beam has been effectively employed for electron-holographic measurements, though the value is not still high enough. Development of a higher brightness beam will promise to open up unattained application possibilities of electron holography such as high resolution and high sensitivity interferometry.We developed the field emission electron microscope for electron holographic applications. Special attentions were paid for high brightness, large beam current and easy operation. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the electron gun. In order not to deteriorate the original high-brightness feature of the beam by the aberrations in the gun and the condenser lenses, a magnetic lens was installed between the tip and the extraction anode so that the total aberration effect might be minimized. Field emitted electron beam is converged by the magnetic and the electrostatic lenses, and accelerated in a ten-stage accelerator which is made of porcelain.


Author(s):  
C. T. Nightingale ◽  
S. E. Summers ◽  
T. P. Turnbull

The ease of operation of the scanning electron microscope has insured its wide application in medicine and industry. The micrographs are pictorial representations of surface topography obtained directly from the specimen. The need to replicate is eliminated. The great depth of field and the high resolving power provide far more information than light microscopy.


Author(s):  
S. Saito ◽  
H. Todokoro ◽  
S. Nomura ◽  
T. Komoda

Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) features extremely high resolution images, and offers many valuable information. But, for a specimen which gives low contrast images, lateral stripes appear in images. These stripes are resulted from signal fluctuations caused by probe current noises. In order to obtain good images without stripes, the fluctuations should be less than 1%, especially for low contrast images. For this purpose, the authors realized a noise compensator, and applied this to the FESEM.Fig. 1 shows an outline of FESEM equipped with a noise compensator. Two apertures are provided gust under the field emission gun.


Author(s):  
Michael T. Postek

The term ultimate resolution or resolving power is the very best performance that can be obtained from a scanning electron microscope (SEM) given the optimum instrumental conditions and sample. However, as it relates to SEM users, the conventional definitions of this figure are ambiguous. The numbers quoted for the resolution of an instrument are not only theoretically derived, but are also verified through the direct measurement of images on micrographs. However, the samples commonly used for this purpose are specifically optimized for the measurement of instrument resolution and are most often not typical of the sample used in practical applications.SEM RESOLUTION. Some instruments resolve better than others either due to engineering design or other reasons. There is no definitively accurate definition of how to quantify instrument resolution and its measurement in the SEM.


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