KIT | KIT-Bibliothek | Impressum | Datenschutz

Electron-Beam-Induced Carbon Contamination in STEM-in-SEM: Quantification and Mitigation

Hugenschmidt, Milena ORCID iD icon 1,2; Adrion, Katharina 1; Marx, Aaron 1; Müller, Erich ORCID iD icon 1; Gerthsen, Dagmar 1,2
1 Laboratorium für Elektronenmikroskopie (LEM), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
2 3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Abstract:

Contamination is an undesired side effect in many electron microscopy studies that covers structures of interest and degrades resolution. Although contamination has been studied for decades, open questions remain regarding favorable imaging conditions for contamination minimization and the efficiency of contamination-mitigation strategies. This work focuses on electron-beam-induced carbon contamination in scanning transmission electron microscopy at electron energies of 30 keV and below. A reliable method to measure contamination thicknesses was developed in this work and enables the identification of imaging conditions that minimize contamination. Thin amorphous carbon films were used as test samples. The variation of important imaging parameters shows that the contamination thickness increases with the reduction of the electron energy to about 1 keV but decreases below 1 keV. Contamination increases with the beam current but saturates at high currents. Applying a given dose with a high dose rate reduces contamination. Among the tested contamination-mitigation methods, plasma cleaning and beam showering are most effective. Most experiments in this work were performed with focused scanning illumination. ... mehr


Verlagsausgabe §
DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000163483
Veröffentlicht am 26.10.2023
Originalveröffentlichung
DOI: 10.1093/micmic/ozac003
Scopus
Zitationen: 14
Web of Science
Zitationen: 15
Dimensions
Zitationen: 15
Cover der Publikation
Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT 3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O)
Laboratorium für Elektronenmikroskopie (LEM)
Publikationstyp Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Publikationsdatum 01.02.2023
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator ISSN: 1431-9276, 1435-8115
KITopen-ID: 1000163483
Erschienen in Microscopy and Microanalysis
Verlag Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Band 29
Heft 1
Seiten 219–234
Vorab online veröffentlicht am 20.12.2022
Schlagwörter carbon contamination, quantitative thickness measurement, sample cleaning, stem at low electron energies, STEM-in-SEM
Nachgewiesen in Scopus
Dimensions
Web of Science
KIT – Die Forschungsuniversität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
KITopen Landing Page