| AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Advanced Ion Microscopy Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session HI+BI+NS+TR-ThM |
| Session: | Advanced Ion Microscopy Applications |
| Presenter: | Paul Dastoor, University of Newcastle, Australia |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Delicate structures (such as biological samples, organic films for polymer electronics and adsorbate layers) suffer degradation under the energetic probes of traditional microscopies. Furthermore, the charged nature of these probes presents difficulties when imaging with electric or magnetic fields, or for insulating materials where the addition of a conductive coating is not desirable. Scanning helium microscopy is able to image such structures completely non-destructively by taking advantage of a neutral helium beam as a chemically, electrically, and magnetically inert probe of the sample surface. Here, we present scanning helium micrographs demonstrating image contrast arising from a range of mechanisms including, for the first time, chemical contrast observed from a series of metal-semiconductor interfaces [1]. The ability of neutral helium microscopy to distinguish between materials without the risk of damage makes it ideal for investigating a wide range of systems.
1. M. Barr, A. Fahy, J. Martens, A.P. Jardine, D.J. Ward, J. Ellis, W. Allison & P.C. Dastoor, “Unlocking new contrast in a scanning helium microscope”, Nature Communications, 7, 10189, (2016).