Development of electron optical system using annular pupils for scanning transmission electron microscope by focused ion beam

Abstract

Annular pupils for electron optics were produced using a focused ion beam (FIB), enabling an increase in the depth of focus and allowing for aberration-free imaging and separation of the amplitude and phase images in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Simulations demonstrate that an increased focal depth is advantageous for three-dimensional tomography in the STEM. For a 200 kV electron beam, the focal depth is increased to approximately 100 nm by using an annular pupil with inner and outer semi-angles of 29 and 30 mrad, respectively. Annular pupils were designed with various outer diameters of 40–120 μm and the inner diameter was designed at 80% of the outer diameter. A taper angle varying from 1° to 20° was applied to the slits of the annular pupils to suppress the influence of high-energy electron scattering. The fabricated annular pupils were inspected by scanning ion beam microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. These annular pupils were loaded into a STEM and no charge-up effects were observed in the scintillator projection images recorded by a CCD camera.