Enhancement of SEM to scanning LEEM

By introducing a cathode lens below or inside the objective lens of a scanning electron microscope, many experiments similar to those typical of the LEEM method can be performed. The conditions for the diffraction of slow electrons are modified by the convergence of the primary beam, and challenges include the necessity of managing the signal species propagating along the optical axis in a direction opposite to that of the primary beam. However, even a simple implementation, providing the integral dark-field signal only, has not only delivered plenty of results in the very low energy range below 50 eV, but the performance in the range of hundreds of eV and units of keV has also been substantially improved. The scanning LEEM method is illustrated using experimental results acquired by additionally employing multichannel detection and detection of transmitted electrons.     

Design of a mirror aberration corrector and a beam separator for LEEM

A SPLEEM (spin polarized low energy electron microscope) has been designed with a numerical simulation of electrostatic and magnetic field distributions and electron ray trajectories. Highly (more than 90%) spin polarized electron source has been used. A Wien type spin manipulator and a magnetic lens type spin rotator are used to align spin direction. A magnetic field free objective lens is designed to observe magnetic domain structure of magnetic materials. High or low magnification mode can be selected by using a combined electrostatic and magnetic objective lens for a high spatial resolution and a wide imaging area observation. An electrostatic mirror aberration corrector is installed after the image forming objective lens. A double deflection 45° beam separator is used to bend the direction of electrons from the source to the objective lens and from the objective lens to the mirror aberration corrector.     

Electron mirror as a corrector of electron microscope objective aberrations

We describe a new optoelectronic system for correcting aberrations of the objective lens with the help of an electron mirror. The system is based on the implementation of a special focusing regime (so-called regime of superimposed images) in which two images of the object are formed in the plane passing through the center of the curvature of the mirror. One of these images is formed by the beams (with aberrations) emerging from the objective lens, and the other is formed by the beams (with cancelled aberrations) reflected from the mirror. The separation of the two superimposed images and visualization of the image with cancelled aberrations are performed by deflection of the electron beam in the axisymmetric magnetic field whose symmetry axis passes through the center of curvature of the electron mirror. The magnetic field distribution ensuring aberration-free deflection of the electron beam is calculated.     

低能电子显微术及其应用

低能电子显微术是新发展起来的一种显微探测技术。它的特点是利用低能（１－３０ｅＶ）电子的弹性背散射使表面实空间实时成像，具有高的横向（１５ｎｍ）和纵向（原子级）分辩率，且易与低能电子衍射及其他电子显微术相结合。近年来它已有效地应用于金属和半导体表面的形貌观测、表面相变、吸附、反应及生长过程的研究。     

新的高能注量电子束二极管系统

 为“闪光二号”加速器研制了新的二极管系统, 其电子束能注量比原二极管系统大3倍多。该系统由带滑闪开关的二极管、漂移管、脉冲磁场和真空靶室等部分组成, 通过减小阴极直径、增大轴向磁场强度和磁透镜比，调节滑闪开关距离和预脉冲开关气压等技术措施, 使二极管具有高能注量电子束输出的稳定工作状态, 在Marx发生器充电电压70kV条件下，在距阴极22cm的靶上获得了总能量21.5kJ、束斑直径52mm和能注量1.01kJ/cm²的电子束输出。     

电子束在磁透镜场中压缩传输理论

 给出了强流相对论电子束在磁透镜场中压缩传输系数的理论公式和计算结果，其结果说明能量传输效率随磁透镜比的增大而减小，随阴极处磁感应强度的增大而增大，对于一个特定的系统存在一个能通量密度的极限值。     

Dispersion effect in optical microscopy systems with a supersphere solid immersion lens

This paper studies the dispersion effect of the supersphere solid immersion lens (SIL) on a near field optical microscopy system by using the vector diffraction theory. Results show that when a real non-monochromatic beam illuminates a supersphere SIL microscopy, the dispersion effect of the SIL has an important influence on the image quality. As the wavelength bandwidth of the non-monochromatic beam increases, the size of the focused spot increases and its intensity decreases in near-field microscopy systems with a supersphere SIL.     

Atomic resolution imaging of oxygen atoms close to heavy atoms by HRTEM and ED,using the superconductor SmFeAsO0.85F0.15 as an example

Imaging of light atoms has always been a challenge in high-resolution electron microscopy. Image resolution is mainly limited by lens aberrations, especially the spherical aberration of the objective lens. Image deconvolution could correct for the image distortion by lens aberrations and restore the structure projection, the resolution of which is limited by the information limit of the microscope. Electron diffraction unrestricted by lens aberrations could overcome this resolution limit. Here we show a combination of electron diffraction and image deconvolution to reveal simultaneously the atomic columns of O and considerably heavier Sm at a very close distance (1.17 Å) in iron-based superconductor SmFeAsO_0.85F_0.15 using a conventional 200 kV electron microscope. The approach used here, starting from an image and an electron diffraction pattern, has an advantage for those radiation-sensitive samples. Besides, it can be applied to simultaneously imaging light and heavy atoms, even though they have a big difference in atomic number and a much smaller atomic distance than the microscope resolution.     

Epitaxial structures of self-organized, standing-up pentacene thin films studied by LEEM and STM

Growth of pentacene (Pn) thin films has been studied in situ by means of low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). A very low nucleation density of Pn grains has been observed on Bi(0 0 0 1)/Si(1 1 1) template, resulting in formation of large, monolayer-high Pn grains with diameter exceeding several hundreds of micrometers. We determined that formation of self-organized, standing-up Pn epitaxial layers was stabilized by a weak interaction between the substrate and Pn molecules and by the presence of the commensurate structure between the oblique Pn lattice and trigonal substrate surface lattice. The ‘point-on-line’ commensurability has been found along a-axis of Pn and one of the primitive vectors of substrate surface lattice. Strong ‘point-on-line’ commensurability in Pn/Bi(0 0 0 1)/Si(1 1 1) system resulted in a bulk-like epitaxial thin film growth, starting from the first layer. The presence of twins, often having a mirror line parallel to the direction of the ‘point-on-line’ matching, has been also detected using an asymmetric dark-field imaging mode in LEEM experiments, which, we believe, is the first LEEM demonstration of molecular tilt imaging.     

Measurement of the chief ray angle of mobile phone camera

The chief ray angle (CRA) of a mobile phone lens is related to the acceptance angle of the IR cutoff filter and micro lens array. The CRA of a lens need to be within an allowed value, otherwise image blurring or vignetting occurs. However, because of the compact size of mobile phone camera lenses, it is not easy to measure the CRA accurately. In this paper, we suggest a new method to measure the CRA of high-quality mobile phone camera lenses accurately using a laser beam as a light source and a plane mirror to collimate the beam in a double pass configuration. When the plane mirror is tilted to the same angle as the lens CRA, the spot center does not change, irrespective of the longitudinal position of the plane mirror. We manufactured the reference optics, which consisted of four spherical lenses, to verify our method. We found that our new CRA measurement method has 0.65° of measurement uncertainty for 15° CRA, which satisfies phone camera makers’ requirements.     

Substrate orientation: A way towards higher quality monolayer graphene growth on 6H-SiC(0 0 0 1)

The influence of substrate orientation on the morphology of graphene growth on 6H-SiC(0 0 0 1) was investigated using low-energy electron and scanning tunneling microscopy (LEEM and STM). Large area monolayer graphene was successfully furnace-grown on these substrates. Larger terrace widths and smaller step heights were obtained on substrates with a smaller mis-orientation from on-axis (0.03°) than on those with a larger (0.25°). Two different types of a carbon atom networks, honeycomb and three-for-six arrangement, were atomically resolved in the graphene monolayer. These findings are of relevance for various potential applications based on graphene-SiC structures.     

微束斑X射线源聚焦系统的数值研究

本文研究了由两个磁透镜组成的电子束打靶微束斑X射线源的聚焦系统.首先利用有限元法计算了磁透镜的磁感应强度的轴上分布,在此基础上用三次样条函数插值计算了磁场的空间分布,最后用四阶Runge-Kutta法追踪了电子的运动轨迹,并给出了入射电子束经过聚焦系统后的缩小倍率.     

赝火花脉冲电子束传输中束斑分析

通过赝火花强流脉冲电子束对酸敏变色片和单晶硅的轰击试验，结合束流自箍缩效应进行理论计算，对赝火花脉冲电子束传输中束斑的变形进行了研究与分析. 结果表明椭圆形轰击束斑是由通过旁路电容的瞬态电流产生的方位角磁场所引起的，并且提出了解决束斑变形的有效方法. 关键词： 脉冲电子束 赝火花放电 束斑 自箍缩效应     

Dispositif optique pour implantation et micro-usinage par projection d'images ioniques Ion imaging for ion implantation and for micromachining

It is well known that more and more precise doping is needed for producing high performance's electronic components and circuits of increasingly enhanced complexity. An ion optic can be used to directly produce a localised implantation allowing to free one self from all masking techniques. The experimental set up mainly consist in a projecting lens which focuses the reduced image of a “model”, structure partially transparent to the ion beam, on the crystal to be implanted. One of the difficult points is connected with the tine control of the focusing of the ion image on the surface of the target. In order to check this focusing an “Ion Image Converter” is used as the projection lens. On the one hand the 10 keV energy positive ion beam is post accelerated to a hundred keV as it is focused on the target; on the other hand, the secondary electrons ejected from the target are accelerated and focused backwards permitting the formation of an electron image which is an enlargement of the ion figure projected on the target; this auxiliary image after further magnification is observed on a fluorescent screen allowing to adjust and to control the focusing and the illumination of the ion image.     

Microscopically controlled oxidation of H/Si(1 0 0) by lateral surface electric field studied by emission electron microscopies

The ultrathin oxidation of a H/Si(1 0 0) surface with microfabricated pn-junctions was studied by photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), mirror electron microscopy (MEM) and microscopic X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (μ-XPS). The ultrathin oxidation inverts the contrast of the junctions in PEEM images. It is found by analyzing the intensity profiles of images that the potential distribution across the pn-junctions is also inverted by the oxidation. The charging of the oxide by ultraviolet irradiation from a light source of PEEM is attributed as the cause of the inversion of the contrast shown by μ-XPS and MEM.     

调制型准层流电子枪聚焦透镜系统的研究

基于变像管工作原理并从其整体性能优化的角度出发,得出在其中采用准层流电子束的必要性;通过分析已有电子光学聚焦系统所存在的结构和性能上的缺陷,确立了优化电子透镜系统的基本模型.在分析各参量相对变化对其渐进聚焦调制特性影响的基础上,阐明了通过膜孔透镜的引入而形成对电子束横向尺寸具有渐进压缩特性的准层流电子枪的可能性.     

Flat electron beams

Electrons from a source in a solenoidal magnetic field emerge from that field with a characteristic angular momentum. This behavior can be used to produce a flat ribbon-like electron beam with zero thickness (to first order). We show that this can be done using a quadrupole triplet and provide analytical expressions for the focal length of each lens. Solutions can be found over a wide range of practical values of the parameters.     

Improving signal levels in intravital multiphoton microscopy using an objective correction collar

Multiphoton microscopy has enabled biologists to collect high-resolution images hundreds of microns into biological tissues, including tissues of living animals. While the depth of imaging exceeds that possible from any other form of light microscopy, multiphoton microscopy is nonetheless generally limited to depths of less than a millimeter. Many of the advantages of multiphoton microscopy for deep tissue imaging accrue from the unique nature of multiphoton fluorescence excitation. However, the quadratic relationship between illumination level and fluorescence excitation makes multiphoton microscopy especially susceptible to factors that degrade the illumination focus. Here we examine the effect of spherical aberration on multiphoton microscopy in fixed kidney tissues and in the kidneys of living animals. We find that spherical aberration, as evaluated from axial asymmetry in the point-spread function, can be corrected by adjustment of the correction collar of a water immersion objective lens. Introducing a compensatory positive spherical aberration into the imaging system decreases the depth-dependence of signal levels in images collected from living animals, increasing signal by up to 50%.     

Kinematic simulation of convergent beam low-energy electron diffraction patterns

Kinematic simulations are used to investigate the geometrical properties of convergent beam low-energy electron diffraction patterns from an Si(0 0 1) surface. Compression of a low-energy electron microscope immersion lens is included explicitly and the sensitivity of patterns to surface reconstruction and dimer buckling is investigated. Key pattern features and whole pattern symmetries are identified from the simulations and interpreted geometrically. Advantages over conventional low-energy electron diffraction techniques are identified.     

Physical spherical phase compensation in reflection digital holographic microscopy

Reflection configured digital holographic microscopy (DHM) can perform accurate optical topography measurements of reflecting objects, such as MEMs, MOEMs, and semiconductor wafer. It can provide non-destructive quantitative measurements of surface roughness and geometric pattern characterization with nanometric axial resolution in real-time. However, the measurement results may be affected by an additional phase curvature introduced by the microscope objective (MO) used in DHM. It needs to be removed either by numerical compensation or by physical compensation.We present a method of physical spherical phase compensation for reflection DHM in the Michelson configuration. In the object arm, collimated light is used for illumination. Due to the use of the MO, the object wavefront may have a spherical phase curvature. In the reference arm, a lens and mirror combination is used to generate a spherical recording reference wave in order to physically compensate the spherical phase curvature of the object wavefront. By controlling the position of the mirror and the sample stage, the compensation process has been demonstrated. The relative positions of the test specimen and the reference mirror must be fixed for the physical spherical phase to be totally compensated. A numerical plane reference wave is preferred for the numerical reconstruction of the phase introduced by the test specimen. Experimental results on wafer pattern recognition are also given.