Hitachi High-Tech America, Inc.| New Approaches to Analytical STEM: Atomic Resolution EELS in a 30kV SEM

Booth 214

For many practical materials science applications, the complexity (and price) of modern aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEMs) can be a difficult barrier to overcome. The use of (low-voltage) scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) in a transmission geometry – or (T)SEMs, especially when equipped with cold field emission sources, offers a widely applicable alternative capable of achieving <0.3nm information transfer in bright-field STEM imaging and remarkable flexibility for surface and spectroscopic investigations of functional materials. Here we demonstrate how a Hitachi SU9000EA (T)SEM instrument equipped with a diffraction camera and an electron energy-loss spectrometer can be pushed towards atomic resolution mapping of materials such as complex oxides. Other EELS applications will also be highlighted to further illustrate the versatility of these instruments, whose advanced capabilities as (T)SEM-EELS instruments belie their relative operational simplicity and low cost.