High Resolution Goniometer Stage for Electron Microscope

Abstract

The performance of a goniometer stage to an electron microscope may be evaluated from several view points, such as operational easy, stability and resolving power. Stability is the fundamental, however. As is often experienced, the incorporation of a specimen tilting mechanism into the specimen chamber causes a functional unstability of the instrument and also causes inconvenience in the design of the objective lens. The top entry goniometer stage has an advantage in mechanical and thermal stability, since the specimen and specimen shifting stage are symmetrically supported around the optical axis. This supporting system is the main difference from that of the side entry goniometer stage. In the latter, the vibration and thermal drift of the specimen is unavoidable, in principle, due to an unbalanced specimen support.We have recently developed a top entry goniometer for the JEM-100B Electron Microscope, taking these points into account to meet the demand for high resolving power: this goniometer is of double tilt type, permitting each axis to tilt by ±30° and enabling the specimen to tilt around some composite tilting axis by ±40°.