2022/12/06 by Frances Quigley, Clive Downing, Quigley, Frances +5
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Materials Science · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Advancements in Photolithography Techniques #Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2212.02964
openalex publication_date 2022/12/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Low voltage scanning electron microscopy is a powerful tool for examining surface features and imaging beam sensitive materials. Improving resolution during low voltage imaging is then an important area of development. Decreasing the effect of chromatic aberration is one solution to improving the resolution and can be achieved by reducing the energy spread of the electron source. Our approach involves retrofitting a light source onto a thermionic Lanthanum Hexaboride (LaB6) electron gun as a cost-effective low energy spread photoelectron emitter. The energy spread of the emitter's photoelectrons is predicted to be between 0.11-0.38eV depending on the photon energy of the UV light source. Proof of principle images have been recorded using this retrofitted photoelectron gun and an analysis of its performance is presented.