Transmission Electron Microscopy

Chapter 2
Electron Optics

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 1

 Outline

• The Structure of TEM

• Aberration and Resolution

• Depth of Field and Depth of Focus

• Calibration

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 2

 OM VS TEM
Optical Microscope (OM) Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)

Light
Source
Condenser
Lens
Specimen
Objective
Lens

Projector
Lens
EYE

1000x BETTER
http://nptel.ac.in/courses/102103047/35
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 3
Geometric optics Three principles elements

Object plane
Back focus plane
Image plane

Object and image planes

are called conjugate planes

Object distance
Image distance
Focus length
Modification

Lens Maker's formula

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 5
 Structure of TEM

E-gun

Condenser Lens Condenser Condenser Lens

Aperture
Specimen
Objective Objective Aperture
Holder
Aperture
Field Limiting Objective Lens
Aperture
Intermediate
Projector Lens Projector Lens
lens

Viewing Screen

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/popup/tem.jsp

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 6

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 7
 Structure of TEM

E-gun

(A) Illumination System

Condenser Lens

Specimen
(B) Stage Holder
Objective Lens
Intermediate
(C) Imaging System Lens Projector Lens

Viewing Screen
(D) Image Detection
/ Recording System
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/popup/tem.jsp

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 10

 Structure of TEM

E-gun

(A) Illumination System

Condenser Lens

• Electron Gun Specimen

Holder
Thermionic Gun Objective Lens
Intermediate
Field-Emission Gun Lens Projector Lens

• Condenser Lens
Viewing Screen

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/popup/tem.jsp

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 11

 Illumination System
• W filament or LaB6
Thermionic Gun
• Thermionic Emission Theory

Cathode • Follows Richardson’s Law

=
Filament J: Current density
A: Richardson’s constant
Wehnelt k: Boltzmann’s constant
cap T: Temperature in Kelvin
Anode : Work function
plate LaB6 : lanthanum hexaboride

The image of three major parts of

a thermionic gun.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 12

 Thermionic Guns
W Filament LaB6 Gun

LaB6 : lanthanum hexaboride

Indirect Heating
Direct Heating
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 11
 Thermionic Guns
• The Wehnelt cap acts
Characteristics as the electrostatic
lens to focus the
electrons.

• The electrons are

accelerated by the
voltage difference
between the source
and the anode plate.

• If the accelerating
voltage of 100 kV is
used, the electrons
will gain the energy of
100 keV after
Schematic diagram of a LaB6
thermionic gun. accelerating process.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 12

 Work function
Electrons on the surface of the metals can be escaped through the energy barrier after
the heating process. This energy barrier calls work function.

Polarization effect: For a P- polarization state, the fixed

(negative) surface charge will act to reduce the work function,
defined as the vacuum level with respect to the Fermi level.
Thus, the more negative the polarization, the smaller

Surface
the effective work function. However, the electrons inside the
materials need to overcome polarization state to the surface
of the metal. (Need more energy to escape the surface of the
metal)

Image effect: A positive charge can be inducted to pull back

the electron once the electron has been escaped out of the
surface of the metal.

Both effects need the energy

, called “work”.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 15

 Electron Guns

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 16

 Brightness

• The brightness is defined as,

Emission Current
=
First Area of the Solid Angle
Cross-over Cross-Over Point of the Beam

4
= =
2
Current Density : =
2
Schematic diagram of a LaB6
thermionic gun. : Diameter of the cross-over point
: Divergence angle
: Emission current

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 13

 Cross-Over

radius of filament radius of crossover

Diameter W wire
of different
sources (d) LaB6
FEG

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 18

 Thermionic Guns

Characteristics

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 14

 Thermionic Guns

Operating Conditions
Saturation Condition: ie reaches a
maximum such that a further
increase in if doesn’t increase ie.

Operating Condition: if is at or
just below the saturation.

Advantage:
1. Prolonging the lifetime of the
gun.
The relationship between the current emitted by
the electron source and the source heating 2. Optimizing the brightness.
current for a self-biasing gun.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 15

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 21
When the current of electrons emitted from the electron gun is increased,
Coulomb interactions between the electrons make an increase of the energy
spread of the electrons. This phenomenon is termed "Boersch effect," which
gives rise to the increase of the chromatic aberration.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 22

 Importance of high brightness
High brightness can generate strong the 2nd electrons, X-ray and inelastic
electrons
In STEM mode, It needs the high brightness to reduce the exposure time of
taking an image.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 23

 Illumination System

Field-Emission Gun (FEG)

• Because the tip must be free of
contaminations and oxides, the
operation in UHV environment
is required.

Thermal FEG Tip Radius: < 0.1 m

UHV: ultra-high vacuum ( < 10-9 torr)
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 16
 Field-Emission Gun

Working Principle

Anode 1: Provides the

Cathode
extraction voltage (few
KV). Enables electrons to
tunnel out of the tip.

Anode 2: Provides the

accelerating voltage.
Accelerate electrons to
high speed.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 17

 Schottky Field Gun

The electric field on the tip of SFE is applied to decrease the material working
function . For this reason such field emitters are coated with low working
function materials such as ZrO2 . Even if SFE is a thermoinoic emitter, the
brightness and the current density are comparable with that ones of CFE. The
electron gun of a SFE is quite similar to that one of CFE. SFE guns include a
suppressor grid to eliminate unwanted thermionic emission from regions outside
the tip.

Schottky emitters - operated typically at high temperatures of 1,700K - are a good

choice for general applications focused on analytical work using large, very stable
probe currents.
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 26
 Illumination System

E-Gun (Electron Source) 1 : 10 : 103

Thermionic Source FEG

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 18

 Coherency and Energy spread
Coherency and Energy spread of beam are determined by

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 29

 Spatial and Temporal Coherency
Coherency is the measurement of the correlation between the phases measured
at different (temporal and spatial) points on a wave.

Temporal coherency is a measurement of the correlation of light wave’s phase at

different points along the direction of propagation – it tells us how monochromatic
a source is.

Spatial coherency is a measurement of the correlation of a light wave’s phase at

different points transversed to the direction of propagation - it tells us how uniform
the phase of a wavefront is.

No way to create a monochromatic electron beam: There is 0.1 ~0.3 eV

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 30
 Temporal and Spatial Coherency of beam in TEM

Temporal Coherency
Monochromatic source
Energy dispersion still happens in TEM (0.1~0.3 eV) for
each electron in electron beam

Spatial Coherency
Effective beam irradiated on the surface of
the specimen can be defined as

(convergence angle)
Control condenser lens to control the C1 cross over
(spot size) and condenser lens aperture to control
the angle. (convergence angle) Aperture to
Small parallel beam with much better spatial reduce the
angle
coherency.
Disadvantage: reduce the brightness of beam
through the aperture.
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 31
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 32
 Fresnel Fringe
• Fresnel fringe can be used to gauge the coherency
of the electron beam.

Fresnel fringe from thermionic gun Fresnel fringe from FEG

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 33

 FEI (thermal
fisher, 2017)
Field Electron and
Ion Company

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 34

 Condenser Lenses

Parallel Beam

Condenser
Aperture

< 10-4 rads (0.0057o)

• When operating at conventional
TEM mode.
• The lens is underfocused to provide
more parallel beam.
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 25
 Condenser Lenses
Convergent Beam Strong C1 Weak C1

• Convergent beam with greater

illumination intensity, can be used
for analyzing thicker specimen.
• Probe-like beam is used to localize
the signals in STEM mode.
STEM: Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 26

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 37
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 38
 Stability
In addition to highly stable in high bias, the beam current should be stable
after the emission.
-Get stable under the longer exposure time
-More stable information on chemical results, including EELS, CL and
EDS.

Unstable condition occurs in thermionic guns when the new gun materials
were replaced or the guns are broken.

In normal case, 1%/per hr unstable behavior is trustable.

For the cold guns, it is more difficult to maintain the stable operation of the
guns.

Ultra high vacuum is necessary for the stable operation.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 39

How to confine (focus) the beam ?

1. Change the current to modify the magnetic field to change focus

ability
2. Use aperture to control the coverage angle

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 40

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 41
 Magnetic Lens

• Electrostatic Lens
Wehnelt Cap
• Magnetic Lenses
Most of Lenses in TEM

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 19

 Magnetic Lens

• A selection of different lenses; (A) a split polepiece objective lens, (B) a top-
entry immersion lens, (C) a snorkel lens, and (D) a quadrupole lens.
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 20
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 44
 Force induced by magnetic field

Angle between optical axis and

direction of electron traveling
Direction of electron traveling is parallel with the direction of the
magnetic field. No magnetic force can be induced. No deflection
of electron
Maximum occurs
magnetic force occurs

• If we change B, the helix trajectory of electrons differs and the electrons with
higher energy must use stronger magnetic field to get similar ray path.
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 45
 Magnification and Rotation of Image

Rotation of Image • The force generated when electrons travel

through the magnetic field, thus, the electrons
travel in the helical manner as they pass
through the lens.
• If we change B, the helix trajectory of electrons
differs. Also, the electrons with higher energy
must use stronger lenses to get similar ray
path.
• The image or DP rotate if you change the
magnification,
=

-- The rotation has been removed by the

addition of a compensating projective lens,
in this case, the image and DP have the
= + × = + × identical orientation.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 23

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 47
 Magnification and Rotation of Image

Magnification • The focal length (f) of the lens

1 1 1
= +

• The magnification (M)

• Strengthening the lens shortens the

focal length f.

1
=

-- A weaker lens (f1) produces a higher

M of the object.
E: energy; B: magnetic field

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 21

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 49
 Focus Conditions

The Strength of Magnetic Field

Object Object

Image
Plane

Overfocused Focused Underfocused

Lens Lens Lens
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 22
 Focus Conditions
• It is better to take an image at slightly underfocused condition
because the edge of the image is clearly seen at the underfocus.

Underfocused Focused Overfocused

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 24

 Remarks
1. There are two types of the electron guns.
Thermionic gun and field-emission gun.

2. The working principle of thermionic gun is based on

the thermionic emission theory , while the electrons of
field-emission gun are pulled out by strong electric field .

3. The parallel beam is used in TEM mode , and it can be obtained

if the condenser lens is underfocused or the condenser aperture
is inserted into TEM.

4. The convergent beam is used when analyzing the thicker specimen

in TEM mode or the probe-scan in STEM mode . The convergent
beam is formed if the lens is at focused condition .

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 27

 Structure of TEM

Specimen
(B) Stage Holder

• Top-Entry Holder

• Side-Entry Holder

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/popup/tem.jsp

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 53

 Specimen Holders

Top-Entry Holders
Loading
System

Pros:
1. Less drift.
Cons:
1. Difficult design.
2. EDS detector is not
accessible.
Cross-section and top-view
illustrations of top-entry holder 3. Resolution is limited.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 54

 Specimen Holders

Side-Entry Holders
3 mm

Clamp or Screw O-ring

Vacuum

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 55

 Specimen Holders

Side-Entry Holders Heating Holder: The

most popular holder for
in-situ studies of
material diffusion,
thermal expansion and
crystallization.
Cooling Holder: this is for
in-situ studies of
superconducting materials,
polymer and biological
tissue.
Double-Tilt Holder: The
essential holder for
imaging and diffraction
analysis of crystalline
specimens.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 56

 Structure of TEM

Objective Lens
Intermediate
(C) Imaging System Lens Projector Lens

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/popup/tem.jsp

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 57

 Imaging System

Objective Lens : The most

important lens in a TEM. It
Intermediate Lens : Electron Beam determines the quality of all
This lens has dual the information (image and
function. DP) about the specimen.

1. Determining the Specimen Objective Lens

magnification
Intermediate
Lens
2. Selecting image
Projector Lens
or DP is
projected onto Projector Lens : The final
the viewing lens. It projects the final
screen. image or DP onto the
viewing screen.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 58

 Imaging System

The Lens Equation

1 1 1
Specimen Object Plane
= +

f: the focal length of the lens

Objective Diffraction Pattern (DP)

Lens

Back Focal Plane

Image

Image Plane

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 59

 Imaging System

Diffraction mode: The back

focal plane of objective lens
acts as the object of
intermediate lens. The DP is
projected onto the viewing
screen.

Image mode: Adjusting the

intermediate lens so that its
object plane is at the image
plane of the objective lens. The
image is projected onto the
viewing screen.
Diffraction mode Image mode
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 60
 Structure of TEM

Viewing Screen
(D) Image Detection
/ Recording System
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/popup/tem.jsp

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 61

 Image Detection/Recording

• Viewing Screen: The fluorescent

screen coated with doped-ZnS emits
light of 550 nm (green light).

Binoculars

Viewing
Screen

CCD Camera

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 62

 Image Detection/Recording

• Photographic Film: The oldest recording

medium. Complicated to have the data.
Brightness of beam, exposure time,
develop conditions….etc.

• Charge-Coupled Device (CCD): The

digital device to record static images
and videos.
-- pros
1. low noise
2. linear response
-- cons
1. expensive
• Ultrahigh speed CCD costs
several millions Photographic Film CCD

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 63

 Image Detection/Recording

• Semiconductor Detector: a Si-based p-n junction plate for detecting the

electrons.

1. e-h pairs generated by the energy

transfer from incident electrons.

2. The incident electron signal is

converted to a current in the
external circuit.

3. STEM detector in ring shape (annular

detector).

ADF/HAADF STEM Detector

BF/ABF STEM Detector

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 64
 Outline

• The Structure of TEM

• Aberration and Resolution

• Depth of Field and Depth of Focus

• Calibration

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 65

 Aberrations

A. Astigmatism

B. Chromatic Aberration

C. Spherical Aberration

D. Diffraction Aberration

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 66

 Astigmatism

• Astigmatism occurs when

1. The polepiece is inhomogeneous.
2. Apertures are not precisely centered.
3. The aperture is not clean.

• The distortion of image,

=
f: The maximum difference in focus
induced by the astigmatism.
: The maximum angle of collection

Astigmatism is easily corrected !!

a quadrupole lens
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 67
 Astigmatism

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 68

 Chromatic Aberration

• Chromatic aberration arises from • The aberration,

the energy spread of electron
beam. The energy spread varies =
from 0.3 eV (cold FEG) to 1 eV
(LaB6).
• It becomes significant after
coming through the specimen.
• The chromatic aberration is
minimized, if

1. The specimen is thin enough.

2. Energy-filtered TEM is used.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 69

 Chromatic Aberration

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 70

 Spherical Aberration

• The spherical aberration occurs

when the lens field behaves
differently for off-axis rays

• The radius of the aberration disk is

given by

=
: Spherical aberration coefficient
: The maximum angle of collection

• Cs is typically few mm, it can be

reduced by the Cs corrector.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 71

 Spherical Aberration

Negative Cs Cs = 0 Positive Cs

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 72

 Cs Corrector →

confinee - beam

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 73

 Cs Corrector

TEM Mode
W/O Cs W/ Cs

The grain boundary in SrTiO3 imaged without and with Cs corrector.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 74

 Cs Corrector

STEM Mode • Interface of ZnO and In

• The Dumbbell Structure of Ge

ABF STEM

• Polarity Determination of GaN

ADF STEM

[110] Ge

ABF image: Annular Bright Field

ADF image: Annular Dark Field
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 75
 Diffraction Aberration

• In ideal lens system, the resolution is generally defined by Rayleigh

Criterion.

Just
Resolved Un resolved
Resolved

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 76

 Diffraction Aberration

• The theoretical resolution of

the lens is given by

= .

Image
: The wavelength of light source Plane
: The maximum angle of collection Lens

Objects
@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 77
 Resolving Power

A. Astigmatism

fields. operation.
B. Chromatic Aberration
-beam.
specimen.
C. Spherical Aberration

is used.
D. Diffraction Aberration
.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 78

 Resolving Power

• The resolution is given

= + = + .

• The best resolution is

(Cs corrector) Higher resolution

Lower or
(smaller )
(High voltage)

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 79

 Remarks
1. There are two types of specimen holders.
Top-Entry and Side-Entry.

2. The intermediate lens not only determines the magnification, but

also selects the image or diffraction pattern .
3. Besides astigmatism and chromatic aberration, the image
resolution of TEM is affected much by spherical aberration and
diffraction aberration.
4. Lowering Cs or can improve the image resolution of TEM, which
can be achieved by installation the Cs corrector or increasing the
operating voltage, respectively.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 54

 Outline

• The Structure of TEM Ch. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

• Aberration and Resolution Ch. 6

• Depth of Field and Depth of Focus Ch. 1, 6

• Calibration Ch. 9

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 81

 Depth of Focus and Depth of Field

• Depth of Field (Dob): The distance

Object along the axis on both sides of
the object plane within which we
can detect without loss of focus.

• Depth of Focus (Dim): The

distance along the axis on
both sides of the image plane
Image within which the image is
focused.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 82

 Depth of Focus and Depth of Field

• and refer to the smallest distance which we can resolve in the

object and image, respectively.

• and are very small, thus

~ = 2 2
~ =
2 2

• = Typically,
1
=
• =

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 83

 Depth of Focus and Depth of Field

• Depth of Focus is given by

• Depth of Field is given by

• If we want to see detail at the 0.2 nm level, we need to use a

magnification of ~500,000x, in this condition, the depth of focus
will be 5 km. If we want to see 2 nm, we can use the magnification
of 50,000x and the depth of focus is 500 m. ~ 0.01

The TEM image would be in focus on the floor under the microscope.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 84

 Outline

• The Structure of TEM Ch. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

• Aberration and Resolution Ch. 6

• Depth of Field and Depth of Focus Ch. 1, 6

• Calibration Ch. 9

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 85

 Calibration

• The TEM should be calibrated when it is first installed or the

instrument (lens coil, gun…etc) is modified.

1. Magnification Calibration

2. Camera-Length Calibration

3. Rotation of the Image

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 86

 Magnification Calibration

• We use the standard specimens to calibrate the magnification. The

thin carbon-film replica of an optical-diffraction grating of known
spacing.

• The typical linear density of lines of the replica is 2160/mm.

• This replica enables the calibration up to 200000 x.

0.463 um

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 87

 Magnification Calibration

• The lattice fringes (phase contrast images) of known crystal ,

can be used for the calibration at higher magnification (the
magnification for high resolution image)

0.344 nm

1300

1200

1100

1000

900

800

700

600
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
nm

Graphite

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 88

 Camera-Length Calibration

• Camera length (L) is an important factor

for structural analysis using diffraction
pattern.

• The magnification of DP (R) increases

with the increased camera length.
Camera
Length 2 ~ =

R: the distance of the diffracted

spot and the direct beam

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 89

 Rotation of the Image

• We have to determine the direction or plane of the crystalline

materials in most cases, so, it is crucial to know the angle between
orientations in image and in the DP.

• If you record the images at different magnifications, the images will

rotate by an angle with respect to the DP.

[001]
(001)

The superposition of the image

MoO3 crystal and the DP of MoO3

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 90

 Rotation of the Image

• There is no angle rotation between the image and DP, that we can
simply know the growth direction/plane by putting the image and DP
together.
(0001)AlN
(0001)InN

Direct beam

InN
[0001]InN

AlN
[0001]AlN

Si

InN film on buffered AlN/(111)Si substrate

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 91

 Remarks
1. Carbon-film replica and a known crystal (e.g. graphite) are used
to calibrate the magnification for low-magnification and high
resolution TEM image, respectively.

2. Camera Length is a crucial factor for analyzing the DPs, R increases

with the increased camera length.

3. The rotation of image differs at different magnifications, please

make sure that before you analyze your specimen, although the
rotation has been removed in most TEMs.

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 84

 Any Questions?

@ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTHU 93