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Diagnostics for Assessing Spectral Quality for X-Ray Microanalysis in Low Voltage and Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscopy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2020
Abstract
There is increasing interest in performing x-ray microanalysis of uncoated insulators while operating in unconventional SEM operating modes such as “low voltage” scanning electron microscopy (LVSEM), where the accelerating voltage is ≤ 5 kV and the pressure is low (<10-4 Pa), or variable pressure environmental SEM (VP-ESEM), where a selected gas is maintained at pressures in the range of 1 Pa -1000 Pa. LVSEM and VP-ESEM as microscopy techniques have proven to be extremely successful for imaging uncoated insulators through various charge dissipation mechanisms that are not available under conventional SEM operating conditions (accelerating voltage ≥ 10 kV and pressure < 10-3 Pa). in LVSEM, surface charging of insulators can often be controlled by careful choice of the accelerating voltage, sample tilt, and scan rate, while in VP-ESEM the charged species in the relatively dense gas (ions, secondary electrons) form a self-neutralizing plasma to provide an additional route for discharging the specimen.
- Type
- Quantitative X-Ray Microanalysis in the Microprobe, in the SEM and in The ESEM:Theory and Practice (Organized by R. Gauvin and E. Lifshin)
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2001
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