Effect of energy filtering on micro-diffraction in the SEM

Abstract

Micro-diffraction based crystallography is essential to the design and development of many classes of ‘crafted materials’. Although the scanning electron microscope can provide crystallographic information with high spatial resolution, its current utility is severely limited by the low sensitivity of existing diffraction techniques (ref: Dingley). Previously, Joy showed that energy filtering increased contrast and pattern visibility in electron channelling. This present paper discribes the effect of energy filtering on EBSP sensitivity and backscattered SEM imaging.The EBSP detector consisted of an electron energy filter, a microchannel plate detector, a phosphor screen, optical coupler, and a slow scan CCD camera. The electrostatic energy filter used in this experiment was constructed as a cone with 5 coaxial electrodes. The angular field-of-view of the filter was approximately 38°. The microchannel plate, which was the initial sensing component, had high gain and had 50% to 80% detection efficiency for the low energy electrons that passed through the retarding field filter.