Performance and applications of the holography electron microscope

Abstract

Electron holography is a two-step imaging method. However, the ultimate performance of holographic imaging is mainly determined by the brightness of the electron beam used in the hologram-formation process. In our 350kV holography electron microscope (see Fig. 1), the decrease in the inherently high brightness of field-emitted electrons is minimized by superposing a magnetic lens in the gun, for a resulting value of 2 × 109 A/cm2 sr. This high brightness has lead to the following distinguished features. The minimum spacing (d) of carrier fringes is d = 0.09 Å, thus allowing a reconstructed image with a resolution, at least in principle, as high as 3d=0.3 Å. The precision in phase measurement can be as high as 2π/100, since the position of fringes can be known precisely from a high-contrast hologram formed under highly collimated illumination. Dynamic observation becomes possible because the current density is high.