ELECTRON ENERGY LOSS SPECTROMETER

Abstract

An electron energy loss spectrometer for electron microscopy is disclosed having an electrically isolated drift tube extending through the bending magnet and through subsequent optics that focus and magnify the spectrum. An electrostatic or magnetic lens is located either before or after or both before and after the drift tube and the lens or lenses are adjusted as a function of the bending magnet drift tube voltage to maintain a constant net focal length and to avoid defocusing. An energy selecting slit is included in certain embodiments to cleanly cut off electrons dispersed outside the energy range incident on the detector, thereby eliminating artifacts caused by unwanted electrons scattering back into the spectrum.

Claims

1. An electron energy loss spectrometer for transmission electron microscopy comprising: a bending magnet, an electrically isolated drift tube, having entrance and exit ends and held at a drift tube potential and having entrance and exit ends and being in proximity to said bending magnet, an electrostatic lens located at either end or both ends of said drift tube wherein said electrostatic lenses are adjusted as a function of said drift tube potential to create a constant net focal length at either end or both ends of said drift tube, and a plurality of optics arranged to produce an intermediate focus of an electron energy loss spectrum within the spectrometer, to magnify the energy loss spectrum projected onto a detector and to minimize electron-optical aberrations.

2. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1 wherein said isolated drift tube is extended throughout said plurality of optics so that there is a constant range of electron energies in said plurality of optics.

3. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1, wherein said lenses are multipole electrostatic lenses and wherein said lenses are adjusted to maintain spectrum focus at said detector during a change in said drift tube potential and to compensate for higher order aberrations.

4. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1, wherein said electrostatic lenses or a plurality of said electrostatic lenses are located at said entrance and said exit of said drift tube.

5. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1, wherein a single electrostatic lens or a plurality of said electrostatic lenses is located at said entrance of said drift tube.

6. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1, wherein a single electrostatic lens or a plurality of said electrostatic lenses is located at said exit of said drift tube.

7. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1, and further comprising an energy selecting slit, said slit being configured to float at a slit electrical potential configured to prevent lens effects around said slit by matching said slit potential to said potential of said drift tube.

8. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1, and further comprising an energy selecting slit, said slit being configured to float at a slit electrical potential configured to intentionally introduce lens effects around said slit by offsetting said slit electrical potential with respect to said potential of said drift tube.

9. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 7, wherein said energy selecting slit edges are positioned independently about an optical axis of the spectrometer and said energy loss spectrum is brought into intermediate focus in the vicinity of said slit by said plurality of optics in order to cleanly cut-off electrons outside of a field of view of the detector.

10. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 8, wherein said energy selecting slit edges are positioned independently about an optical axis of the spectrometer and said energy loss spectrum is brought into intermediate focus in the vicinity of said slit by said plurality of optics in order to cleanly cut-off electrons outside of a field of view of the detector.

11. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 9, further comprising additional baffles configured for use in conjunction with said energy selecting slit to cleanly cut-off electrons outside of the detector field of view.

12. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 10, further comprising additional baffles configured for use in conjunction with said energy selecting slit to cleanly cut-off electrons outside of the detector field of view.

13. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 7, wherein said edges of said energy selecting slit are positioned symmetrically around an optical axis so as to place the electron energy loss spectrum as near the optical axis as possible.

14. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 7, wherein said energy selecting slit has an adjustable slit width.

15. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 8, wherein said energy selecting slit has an adjustable slit width.

16. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 7, wherein said electron energy loss spectrum is at least partially out of focus at said energy selecting slit.

17. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 8, wherein said electron energy loss spectrum is at least partially out of focus at said energy selecting slit.

18. The electron energy loss spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the electron energy loss spectrum is only in focus at the detector and nowhere else in the spectrometer.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an prior art electron energy loss spectrometer;

[0008] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary electron energy loss spectrometer according to the invention;

[0009] FIG. 3 is a plan view of an exemplary drift tube comprising an energy-selecting slit; and

[0010] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an exemplary adjustable energy-selecting slit and a graph of projected intensity versus energy for the spectrum.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

[0011] With reference to FIG. 2, in an embodiment of the invention, there is a beam 205 emerging from a transmission electron microscope 201 entering the spectrometer through an aperture 210. An electrostatic lens system 211, 212 and 219, 220 is respectively added to the prior art device before and after the bending magnet drift tube 214. These lenses are adjusted as a function of the bending magnet drift tube voltage so that the net focal length is constant and no defocusing occurs. Reference items 211 and 220 depict grounded tubes and 212, 219 are voltage biased lens elements.

[0012] In a further embodiment, the isolated drift tube 214 is extended throughout the entire optics 216, 217, not just the bending magnet 214, so that the range of electron energies in all the optics is constant and no defocusing occurs.

[0013] In a further embodiment, the electrostatic lenses 212, 219 are round electrostatic lenses. In a further embodiment the electrostatic lenses are located at the start 212 and end 219 of the bending magnet drift tube. In the case of the EEL spectrometer that can serve as an Imaging Energy Filter as well, the energy selecting slit 218 is floated at the voltage V, to prevent electrostatic lens effects around the slit. In further embodiments, there are fewer or more than two electrostatic lenses. In a further embodiment, multi-pole lenses are used instead of round lenses. In further embodiments magnetic lenses are used instead of electrostatic lenses.

[0014] In a further embodiment, an intermediate focused spectrum is formed in the system.

[0015] In this embodiment shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, a slit 218 is placed at the focused spectrum 250 with a width in cV equal to the field of view in cV to be detected by the detector. Exemplary placement of the slit is shown in FIG. 2. The slit is imaged by following optics 217 to match the size of the detector 221 in the dispersion direction, so that electrons that are outside of the detector field of view cannot proceed in the spectrometer past the slit. These electrons are cleanly and sharply trapped by the slit and can therefore no longer scatter off of drift tube walls. In this embodiment, the slit width is adjustable as depicted by double-headed arrows in FIGS. 3 and 4 and is adjusted with varying dispersion such that it always closely matches the field of view in eV to be detected by the detector. The slit is floated at a controllable electrostatic potential (labeled Bias V in FIG. 4.)

[0016] In a further embodiment, the slit edges are positioned symmetrically around the optical axis, so that the entire detected spectrum is as near the optical axis as possible. This will minimize the generation of off-axis electron optical aberrations. In a further embodiment, the slit edges are individually adjustable.

[0017] In a further embodiment the slit is held at the same potential as the electrostatic drift tube throughout the system. In a further embodiment, the spectrum at the slit is not fully in focus.

[0018] In a further embodiment, there is no focused spectrum in the spectrometer except for at the detector plane. In a further embodiment the slit is held at an electrostatic potential different than the drift tubes through the system. In a further embodiment the slit is used in combination with baffles.