AVS 49th International Symposium
    Nanometer Structures Friday Sessions
       Session NS-FrM

Paper NS-FrM11
First SEM, SAM and Combined SEM/STM Results of a Novel UHV Compatible Electron Column with Sub 3 nm Resolution

Friday, November 8, 2002, 11:40 am, Room C-207

Session: Novel Surface Nanoprobes
Presenter: J. Westermann, OMICRON NanoTechnology GmbH, Germany
Authors: J. Westermann, OMICRON NanoTechnology GmbH, Germany
M. Maier, OMICRON NanoTechnology GmbH, Germany
G. Schaefer, OMICRON NanoTechnology GmbH, Germany
J. Bihr, LEO Elektronenmikroskopie GmbH, Germany
J. Zach, CEOS GmbH, Germany
T. Berghaus, OMICRON NanoTechnology GmbH, Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
Scanning Electron Microscopy has been a proven tool for a huge variety of scientific applications for decades. Recently, new challenging applications are emerging from the fields of Semiconductor- and Nanotechnology. A key issue for these applications is the non-destructive imaging of the typically very sensitive, small and thin structures with nanoscale dimensions, as well as the characterisation of their chemical composition and electrical properties. Here, we present electron optical concepts and first results of a true UHV compatible version of an SEM column designed to meet the new requirements of ultra low outgassing, low beam voltages, and high resolution with high beam currents. Performance checks on nanostructured samples prove an ultimate lateral resolution below 3 nm at 15 keV beam energy and still below 5 nm at 3 keV at a working distance being compatible with electron energy analysers, and sample currents being suitable for Auger electron analysis. Beam currents in the nA range can be achieved with spot sizes below 10 nm at 1kV beam energy, thus enabling to use this column as an excitation source for chemical characterisation with ultimate spatial resolution in Scanning Auger Microscopy. First static Auger and SAM results demonstrating the outstanding spatial resolution will be shown. Furthermore, we report on the combination of this SEM column with simultaneous Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM). This combination allows a continuous zoom from mm scale down to the atomic level on the same sample position, precise positioning of the SPM probe, as well as electrical contacting of nanosized structures (e.g. nanotubes or semiconductor devices).