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Irradiation Induced Effects in the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Marion A. Stevens Kalceff*
Affiliation:
Microstructural Analysis Unit, Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney, PO 123, Broadway, NSW2007, AUSTRALIA
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Extract

When a poorly conducting specimen is irradiated with an electron beam in a variable pressure electron microscope, the excess charge on the surface of the specimen can be neutralized by incident gas ions to prevent deflection and retarding of the electron beam. A small fraction (<10∼6) of the incident electrons are trapped at irradiation induced or pre-existing defects within the irradiated micro-volume of specimen. The trapped charge induces an electric field, which may result in the electro-migration and micro-segregation of charged mobile defect species within the irradiated volume of specimen. These charge induced effects are dependent on the density of trapping centers and their capture cross sections. In particular, evidence of these micro-diffusion processes can be directly observed in electron beam irradiated ultra pure silicon dioxide (SiO2) polymorphs using Cathodoluminescence (CL) microanalysis (spectroscopy and imaging). CL microanalysis enables both pre-existing and irradiation induced defects in wide band gap materials (i.e. semiconductors and insulators) to be monitored and characterized with high sensitivity and spatial resolution. Depth resolution is achieved by varying the electron beam energy.

Type
Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy and Other Wet Work
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

references

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5.The author gratefully acknowledges the Australian Research Council for financial support.Google Scholar