Thirty per cent contrast in secondary-electron imaging by scanning field-emission microscopy.
- Zanin DA Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- De Pietro LG Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- Peter Q Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- Kostanyan A Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- Cabrera H Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- Vindigni A Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- Bähler T Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- Pescia D Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- Ramsperger U Laboratory for Solid State Physics , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
- 2016-12-14
Published in:
- Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences. - 2016
scanning field-electron microscopy
scanning field-emission microscopy
scanning tunnelling microscopy
secondary-electron imaging
English
We perform scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) in a regime where primary electrons are field-emitted from the tip and excite secondary electrons out of the target-the scanning field-emission microscopy regime (SFM). In the SFM mode, a secondary-electron contrast as high as 30% is observed when imaging a monoatomic step between a clean W(110)- and an Fe-covered W(110)-terrace. This is a figure of contrast comparable to STM. The apparent width of the monoatomic step attains the 1 nm mark, i.e. it is only marginally worse than the corresponding width observed in STM. The origin of the unexpected strong contrast in SFM is the material dependence of the secondary-electron yield and not the dependence of the transported current on the tip-target distance, typical of STM: accordingly, we expect that a technology combining STM and SFM will highlight complementary aspects of a surface while simultaneously making electrons, selected with nanometre spatial precision, available to a macroscopic environment for further processing.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- hybrid
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1098/rspa.2016.0475
- PMID 27956876
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/185468
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