scholarly journals The Design of a Reflection Electron Energy Loss Spectrometer Attachment for Low Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 7511
Author(s):  
Jonathan Chuah ◽  
Anjam Khursheed
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Electron Energy ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Electron Trajectory ◽  
Scattered Electron ◽  
Backscattered Electrons ◽  
Pass Energy ◽  
Voltage Scanning ◽  
Scanning Electron

This paper presents the design of a reflection electron energy spectrometer (REELS) attachment for low voltage scanning electron microscopy (LVSEM) applications. The design is made by carrying out a scattered electron trajectory ray paths simulation. The spectrometer attachment is small enough to fit on the specimen stage of an SEM, and aims to acquire nanoscale spatially resolved REELS information. It uses a retarding field electrostatic toroidal sector energy analyzer design, which is able to lower the kinetic energies of elastically backscattered electrons to pass energies of 10 eV or less. For the capture of 1 keV BSEs emitted in the polar angular range between 40 to 50°, direct ray-tracing simulations predict that the spectrometer attachment will have an energy resolution of around 0.4 eV at a pass energy of 10 eV, and 0.2 eV at a pass energy of 5 eV. This predicted performance will make it a suitable REELS attachment for SEMs that use field emission electron sources.

Highly Reproducible Secondary Electron Imaging under Electron Irradiation Using High-Pass Energy Filtering in Low-Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisuke Tsurumi ◽  
Kotaro Hamada ◽  
Yuji Kawasaki
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Electron Irradiation ◽  
Secondary Electron ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Energy Filtering ◽  
Pass Energy ◽  
High Pass ◽  
Voltage Scanning ◽  
Scanning Electron

AbstractThe reproducibility of contrast in secondary electron (SE) imaging during continuous electron irradiation, which caused surface contamination, was investigated using SE high-pass energy filtering in low-voltage scanning electron microscopy (SEM). According to high-pass energy-filtered imaging, dopant contrast in an indium phosphide remained remarkably stable during continuous electron irradiation although the contrast in unfiltered SE images decreased rapidly as a contamination layer was formed. Charge neutralization and the SE energy distributions indicate that the contamination layer induces a positive charge. This results in a decrease of low-energy SE emissions and reduced dopant contrast in unfiltered SE images. The retention of contrast was also observed in high-pass energy-filtered images of a gold surface. These results suggest that this imaging method can be widely used when SE intensities decrease under continuous electron irradiation in unfiltered SE images. Thus, high-pass energy-filtered SE imaging will be of a great assistance for SEM users in the reproducibility of contrast such as a quantitative dopant mapping in semiconductors.

Novel Approaches to Low-Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 366-367
Author(s):  
Arthur V. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Electron Optics ◽  
Current Interest ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Opportune Time ◽  
Novel Approaches ◽  
Voltage Scanning ◽  
Scanning Electron

In comparison with the developers of other forms of instrumentation, scanning electron microscope manufacturers are among the most conservative of people. New concepts usually must wait many years before being exploited commercially. The field emission gun, developed by Albert Crewe and his coworkers in 1968 is only now becoming widely available in commercial instruments, while the innovative lens designs of Mulvey are still waiting to be commercially exploited. The associated electronics is still in general based on operating procedures which have changed little since the original microscopes of Oatley and his co-workers.The current interest in low-voltage scanning electron microscopy will, if sub-nanometer resolution is to be obtained in a useable instrument, lead to fundamental changes in the design of the electron optics. Perhaps this is an opportune time to consider other fundamental changes in scanning electron microscopy instrumentation.

scholarly journals Low Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C Joy ◽  
Dale E Newbury
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Spatial Resolution ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Incident Beam ◽  
Operational Mode ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Rapid Fall ◽  
Voltage Scanning ◽  
Scanning Electron

Low Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy (LVSEM), defined as operation in the energy range below 5 keV, has become perhaps the most important single operational mode of the SEM. This is because the LVSEM offers advantages in the imaging of surfaces, in the observation of poorly conducting and insulating materials, and for high spatial resolution X-ray microanalysis. These benefits all occur because a reduction in the energy Eo of the incident beam leads to a rapid fall in the range R of the electrons since R ∼k.E01.66. The reduction in the penetration of the beam has important consequences.

Low voltage scanning electron microscopy

Micron ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 27 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 247-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Joy ◽  
Carolyn S. Joy
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Voltage Scanning ◽  
Scanning Electron

On Low Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy and Chemical Microanalysis

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.D. Boyes
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Energy Dispersive ◽  
Beam Specimen ◽  
Topographic Analysis ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Voltage Scanning ◽  
Scanning Electron

AbstractThe current status and general applicability of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) at low voltages is reviewed for both imaging (low voltage scanning electron microscopy, LVSEM) and chemical microanalysis (low voltage energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, LVEDX). With improved instrument performance low beam energies continue to have the expected advantages for the secondary electron imaging of low atomic number (Z) and electrically non-conducting samples. They also provide general improvements in the veracity of surface topographic analysis with conducting samples of all Z and at both low and high magnifications. In new experiments the backscattered electron (BSE) signal retains monotonic Z dependence to low voltages (<1 kV). This is contrary to long standing results in the prior literature and opens up fast chemical mapping with low dose and very high (nm-scale) spatial resolution. Similarly, energy-dispersive X-ray chemical microanalysis of bulk samples is extended to submicron, and in some cases to <0.1 μm, spatial resolution in three dimensions at voltages <5 kV. In favorable cases, such as the analysis of carbon overlayers at 1.5 kV, the thickness sensitivity for surface layers is extended to <2 nm, but the integrity of the sample surface is then of concern. At low beam energies (E0) the penetration range into the sample, and hence the X-ray escape path length out of it, is systematically restricted (R = F(E05/3)), with advantages for the accuracy or elimination of complex analysis-by-analysis matrix corrections for absorption (A) and fluorescence (F). The Z terms become more sensitive to E0 but they require only one-time calibrations for each element. The new approach is to make the physics of the beam–specimen interactions the primary factor and to design enabling instrumentation accordingly.

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