Determination of Crystallographic Information by Means of Very Low Energy Electron Imaging

Abstract

The present work explores the possibility of using scanning low energy electron microscopy (SLEEM) to obtain crystallographic orientation information from the variation in very low energy (0-50 eV) electron reflectivity. SLEEM is a scanning microscopy technique that allows imaging with electrons at arbitrarily low incident energies while preserving very good image resolution. As the incident electron energy changes in the very low energy range of tens of eV and less, the image signal of reflected electrons varies. Since the reflectivity of very low energy electrons in the range of 0–30 eV correlates with the crystal structure normal to the surface of the material, it can be used to determine the crystallographic orientation with nanoscale resolution.