Brodusch Nicolas, Demers Hendrix, Gellé Alexandra, Moores Audrey, Gauvin Raynald
Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H3A 0C5, Canada.
Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H3A 0C5, Canada.
Ultramicroscopy. 2019 Aug;203:21-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2018.12.015. Epub 2018 Dec 24.
A commercial electron energy-loss spectrometer (EELS) attached to a high-resolution cold-field emission scanning electron microscope in transmission mode (STEM) is evaluated and its potential for characterizing materials science thin specimens at low accelerating voltage is reviewed. Despite the increased beam radiation damage at SEM voltages on sensitive compounds, we describe some potential applications which benefit from lowering the primary electrons voltage on less-sensitive specimens. We report bandgap measurements on several dielectrics which were facilitated by the lack of Cherenkov radiation losses at 30 kV. The possibility of volume plasmon imaging to probe local composition changes in complex materials was demonstrated using energy-filtered STEM, either via spectrum imaging or elemental mapping using the "three-windows" method. As plasmonic materials are increasing used for energy, electronics or biomedical applications, the ability of reliably evaluate their properties at low accelerating voltage in a SEM is very appealing and is demonstrated. The energy resolution of the spectrometer, taken as the full width at half maximum of the zero-loss peak, was routinely measured at around 0.55 eV and it is demonstrated that t/λ ratios up to 1.5 allowed practical EEL spectroscopy at 30 kV.
