Electron beam-induced current imaging with two-angstrom resolution

Matthew Mecklenburg; William A Hubbard; Jared J Lodico; B C Regan

doi:10.1016/j.ultramic.2019.112852

Electron beam-induced current imaging with two-angstrom resolution

Ultramicroscopy. 2019 Dec:207:112852. doi: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2019.112852. Epub 2019 Oct 1.

Authors

Matthew Mecklenburg¹, William A Hubbard², Jared J Lodico², B C Regan²

Affiliations

¹ Core Center of Excellence in Nano Imaging (CNI), University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089, U.S.A. Electronic address: matthew.mecklenburg@usc.edu.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, U.S.A; California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, U.S.A.

PMID: 31678644
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2019.112852

Abstract

An electron microscope's primary beam simultaneously ejects secondary electrons (SEs) from the sample and generates electron beam-induced currents (EBICs) in the sample. Both signals can be captured and digitized to produce images. The off-sample Everhart-Thornley detectors that are common in scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) can detect SEs with low noise and high bandwidth. However, the transimpedance amplifiers appropriate for detecting EBICs do not have such good performance, which makes accessing the benefits of EBIC imaging at high-resolution relatively more challenging. Here we report lattice-resolution imaging via detection of the EBIC produced by SE emission (SEEBIC). We use an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), and image both microfabricated devices and standard calibration grids.

Keywords: Aberration-correction; EBIC; STEM; Secondary electrons; Transmission electron microscopy.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Electrons
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / methods*