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The SEM uses a highly focused electron beam to strike and interact with a sample
which is contained in a high vacuum environment to form a high resolution image.
Different types of images can be formed in the SEM. These are images from
secondary electrons, backscattered electrons, characteristic x-rays, Auger electrons,
and others that are emitted by the sample.
A typical SEM is comprised of the following:
o Electron Gun or Electron beam generation
o Tungsten filament cathode
o LaB6 cathode
o Field emission gun
o Cathode comparison
o Deflection coils
o Condenser lenses
o Vacuum system
o Detectors
Electron Source (Gun)
The electron gun is used to generate a small, bright source of electrons that can be
focused onto the surface of the specimen. These electrons will then interact with
the sample and produce electrons or x-rays which will be detected and produce an
image of the sample.
There are three typical types of electron guns used in SEM. They are:
Tungsten hairpin (most common) (thermionic)
Lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) (thermionic)
Field emission electron gun (field emission)
It can be seen that the brightness depends on the filaments nature, thus typical
values for a W filament are: T=2700K, ie=3.4A.cm-2, EO=100kV .
It gives a brightness of about 105A.cm2.sr..
The search for materials that produce higher brightness led to the development of
LaB6 giving ten times more brightness than W.
Tungsten Filament (Thermionic)
A bent tungsten wire filament, with a diameter of around
100 m, is spot welded to metal posts. These posts are
embedded in a ceramic holder and extend out the other
side to provide electrical connections.
In operation, the filament will be heated by passing an
electrical current through it. Optimum filament
temperature for the thermionic emission of electrons is
around 2700 degrees Kelvin.
LaB6 Filament (Thermionic)
The Lanthanum Hexaboride Filament is a
sharpened rod/block of single crystal LaB6. It is
about 50 m in diameter and about 0.5 mm long.
The LaB6 crystal is both supported and resistively
heated by either Carbon or Rhenium, two materials
that do not react to form a compound with LaB6.
To equal the current density of W the temperature of
the LaB6 can be reduced to 1500K.
Field Emission Filament
Another type of electron source (non-thermoionic) is field emission.
The filament used is usually a wire of single-crystal tungsten fashioned into a sharp
point (tip radius about 100 nm or less) and spot welded to a tungsten hairpin.
An electric field can be concentrated to an extreme level at the tip of the filament.
The electric field at the tip is very strong (107V/cm) due to the sharp effect.
Thus, the potential barrier for e-s becomes reduced and the e-s leave the cathode
(filament) without requiring any thermal energy to lift them over the work function
barrier.
Field Emission
(x)
An electron at an energy E i is free
x to move inside the solid. When it
s(x) reach the surface it tries to move
away and out of the surface. The
m e(x) solid then lacks a negative charge
Ei and the resulting Coulomb force
Ef + - attracts the electron back into the
solid. The potential energy is s.
t(x) If an applied electric field directed
Ec toward the emitting surface. The
electron will experience an
additional potential energy.e
The total potential energy is t.
http://www.matter.org.uk/tem/electron_gun/electron_gun_simulation.htm
There are different types of field
emission guns:
Cold Field Emission (FE) e-s
excited only by the presence of an
electric field.
Thermal Field Emission (TF) e-s
excited by an electric field +
temperature
Schottky Emission (SE) e-s
excited by electric field +
temperature + a reduction of the
work function (EW) by coating.
Examples of EW:
W = 4.5 eV
LaB6 = 2.5eV
W/ZrO (ZrO coating on a <100>
tungsten facet) = 4.5 2.8eV
Summary of filament properties:
Tip radius (A/cm2.sr) Current density Vacuum (torr)
(relative)
Point filament 1~ 10m 2x106 4 10-5
Hairpin filament 30m 5x105 1 10-5
LaB6 1~10m 7x106 14 10-6
Field Emission 50 nm 107~108 20 10-8-10-9
Filament Saturation
A condition of beam current saturation
must be established to ensure a stable
beam. A beam current saturation is
reached when a small increase or
decrease in the filament heating current
do not change the electron beam
current.
A False Peak appears when there is an uneven temperature distribution and some
other part of the filament surface reaches emission temperature before the filament
tip. The beam current rises, and then falls, before the saturation condition is
established.
Brightness and bias voltage
At low bias, since little or no focusing takes place. The diameter d of the cross over is
large and the brightness obtained is not optimum.
At high bias, most of the emitted electrons will return to the filament and it will shut
down (cut-off) all the emission.
We want good emission, good focus (small d) and high brightness.
There is an optimum bias setting for maximum brightness.
Two kinds of adjustment are possible:
adjust the h (height) distance between the tip of the filament and the Wehnelt cap hole.
adjust the bias voltage,
Comparison of Electron Sources
Characteristic W LaB6 Cold FE Thermal Schottky
Type of Emission Thermoionic Thermoionic Field emission Field emission Field emission
Vacuum (Pa) 10-4 10-5 10-7 10-7 10-6
Electron source size 30m 10m 5nm 5nm 20nm
Cathode Temp. K 2,800 1,800 293 1,800 1,800
Energy spread eV 2 1.5 0.2 0.3-1 0.5-1
Brightness (A.cm-3.sr) 106 107 109 108 108
Stability % 1 1 5 5 2
Life hours 50-100 200-1,000 2,000 2,000 6,000
Application Standard SEM. High Resolution HR-SEM
VP SEM. SEM. EDS,WDS
EDS EDS CL
WDS EBSP EBSP
Image Formation
Electron Lenses
Electrons have a charge and their direction of travel can be altered by an
electromagnetic field.
An electron traveling in off-axis to a uniform magnetic field follows a helical
path. Electrons can be brought to focus by engineering the electrostatic and/or
magnetic fields.
Electron lenses are used to demagnify the image of the beam cros-over in the
electron gun (e.g. do~50m for a heated tungsten gun) to the final spot size on
the specimen (~10nm). This is a demagnification of 5000 times.
In a filed emission gun the source is small and only requires demagnifications
of 10-100 times to produce a 1-2nm probe size.
The electrons in the SEM are focused by electromagnetic lenses. These lenses
have smaller aberrations, however these perform poorly compared to typical
glass lenses.
In the electromagnetic lens, the
intensity of the field (the magnetic
flux) causes a radial vector along
the optical axis, so when an electron
is accelerated through the pole
pieces, it takes a helical path
through the lens. The rotational
force is the product of the electron
velocity and the density of the
magnetic flux. This vector
interaction also results in focusing
as the strength of the lens is
changed
The focal length of the
electromagnetic lens is
controlled by varying the lens
current. The focal length is
approximately proportional to
V
(NI )2
where V is the accelerating
voltage, N is the number of
turns in the magnet coil and I
is the current.
Beam-controlling lenses
The electron microscope has a number of electromagnetic lenses that are used for:
Centering beam on column
Adjusting and regulating microprobe current
Focussing beam on sample surface
Electromagnetic lenses
are composed of coils of
wire in a soft iron
housing. These must be
very symmetrical to avoid
beam distortion. Current
passed through coiled
wire creates a magnetic
field that deflects
electrons and causes them
to focus to a point. The
stronger the current to the
wires, the shorter the focal
length.
These lenses are created with high precision and even a hairline scratch can distort
their magnetic field and will have to be replaced.
Most electromagnetic lenses are cooled with water to prevent extra heating.
Their functions are similar to optical lenses.
A condenser lens can condense electrons; an objective lens can focus electrons on
the specimen, and a projector lens can project an image onto a screen.
1 1 1
= +
f p q
p dO
Demagnification = m = =
q d1
Defects in Lenses
All lenses suffer of a number of defects or aberrations in their performance.
In contrast to light optics, the effects of aberrations in electron optics can not
be cancelled by using combinations of lenses.
Types of Defects
Chromatic Aberration
Spherical Aberration
Astigmatism
Aberrations in the Objective Lens
Aperture Diffraction
Chromatic Aberration
Since the focal length (f) of a lens is dependent on the strength of the lens, it
follows that different wavelengths will be focused to different positions. Chromatic
aberration of a lens is seen as fringes around the image due to a zone of focus.