40keV atomic resolution TEM

Abstract

Here we present the first atomic resolution TEM imaging at 40 keV using an aberration-corrected, monochromated source TEM. Low-voltage High-Resolution Electron Microscopy (LVHREM) has several advantages, including increased cross-sections for inelastic and elastic scattering, increased contrast per electron and improved spectroscopy efficiency, decreased delocalization effects and reduced knock-on damage. Together, these often improve the contrast to damage ratio obtained on a large class of samples. Third-order aberration correction now allows us to operate the TEM at low energies while retaining atomic resolution, which was previously impossible. At low voltage the major limitation to resolution becomes the chromatic aberration limit. We show that using a source monochromator we are able to reduce the effect of chromatic aberration and achieve a usable high-resolution limit at 40 keV to less than 1Å. We show various materials' examples of the application of the technique to image graphene and silicon, and compare atomic resolution images with electron multislice simulations.