High resolution scanning electron microscopy is still a relatively new and unfamiliar concept because in the early days of the SEM it was expected, that secondary electron imaging would be limited to a resolution of between 5 and 10nm at best. Now, however, because of improvements in instrumentation and technique based on advances in the understanding of electron beam interactions with solids current SEMs can demonstrate spatial resolutions below 1nm, rivaling those obtained by transmission instruments.High performance scanning electron microscopes always incorporate two advanced items of instrumentation. Firstly they use field emission guns (FEGs). The high brightness, low energy spread, and small source size of the FEG makes it possible to produce an electron probe of sub-nanometer size which contains sufficient current for secondary electron imaging (i.e 10-12 amps or more) and which can maintain this performance over a wide energy range (3 to 30keV). Secondly, the new high performance instruments place the specimen within a high excitation, immersion, probe forming lens.
Ambient Variable Pressure Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy for Trichome Profiling of Plectranthus tomentosa by Secondary Electron Imaging
