Surface Sensitive Microscopy

Photoelectrons produced by illumination of the surface with UV light (from a high pressure mercury or deuterium lamp) are imaged in PEEM directly and in real-time.

The FOCUS IS-PEEM is a Photoemission Electron Microscope with an achievable lateral resolution down to below 20 nm. In contrast to SEM, PEEM is a true surface sensitive microscope.

For comparison, Pd stripes on Si are imaged using PEEM (top) and SEM (bottom). The observed contrast is dominated by lateral variations of the work function. Thus PEEM is surface sensitive and reveales details of the topography on the Pd stripes, which are not observed in SEM. The pseudo-3d appearance of the PEEM image is the result of the illumination under an angle of about 25° with respect to the surface.

This result has been obtained with :
FOCUS IS-PEEM