LAUSR

Newer generations of electron microscopes have dramatically increased spatial resolution and analytical sensitivity by focusing ever higher electron currents into smaller and smaller volumes. Atomic resolution imaging and atom-by-atom elemental mapping with Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) are being frequently reported for a wide variety of materials [1]. Commercially available MEMS-based sample holders, which can encapsulate the sample in a small volume of controllable fluid or gas, have also become widely available for most microscopes with accessible EDS or EELS signals. Radiation damage with higher available beam currents and the longer acquisition times for improved pixel resolution and field of view further exasperate an already complex problem of dose-induced damage/changes to ultrastructure of materials.