The Technology
The performance of high-end electron microscopes (EMs) is significantly constrained by the energy spread of the electron beam, which impacts resolution by introducing chromatic aberrations.
Our new technology allows mitigating the electron energy spread by energy squeezing by more than order of magnitude, without intensity loss, while reducing the size and complexity of the system.
The energy spread not only affects image clarity but also limits the effectiveness of various electron spectroscopy applications. Chromatic aberrations occur when electrons of different energies are focused on different points, leading to blurred images and reduced precision in measurements.
Addressing the challenges posed by electron energy spread is critical for enhancing the capabilities of electron microscopes across diverse scientific and industrial applications. By improving energy resolution, researchers can achieve greater precision and clarity in their observations, driving innovations in technology and science.
In low-voltage scanning electron microscopy (LV-SEM), which is widely used in the semiconductor industry as a critical-dimensions analysis tool, known as CD-SEM, the energy spread hinders the accurate measurement of microchips features. In life science, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) is increasingly important for its ability to visualize biological structures at the atomic level. The energy spread limits the ability to resolve fine details in biological samples.
Lastly, ultra-fast TEM (UTEM) is used to study ultrafast phenomena, capturing events that occur on timescales ranging from femtoseconds to nanoseconds. The energy spread can affect the temporal resolution and the ability to accurately observe rapid dynamic processes in materials science, chemistry, and physics.
The state-of-the-art solution to mitigate the electron energy spread limitation is slit-based monochromators (MCs). However, MCs are severely attenuating the electron flux by a factor of x10 and above. This attenuation degrades the performance of HR-TEMs and UTEM applications, which suffer from low flux a priori due to the pulsed nature of their operation, thereby preventing the application of conventional MCs to UTEM. In addition, slit-based MCs are expensive and require extremely stabilized power sources, which highly complicate their deployment and limit the integration time due to drift phenomena. Moreover, such slit-based MCs introduce spherical aberrations that fundamentally limit image acquisition.
Our novel electron monochromator, based on THz interaction with the beam, is lossless, aberration-free, cost-effective, and modular, thus making it applicable to a wide range of EM systems. Such an apparatus is an essential device for improving the performance of future electron microscopes.
Applications
- Microscopy
- Spectroscopy
- Lithography
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