Condensed-Matter Physics & Materials Science Seminar

Advances in High-Voltage Electron Holography T. Tanigaki Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd. Email: toshiaki.tanigaki.mv@hitachi.com Electron holography can observe electromagnetic field inside materials and devices at high-resolution around atomic scale. The high penetration power of a high energy electron wave is crucial to observing magnetic structures, which exist only in thick samples. It is particularly crucial in three-dimensional (3D) observations, which require a series of sample observations with the sample increasingly tilted so that the projected sample thickness increases with the tilt angle. As an example of this, magnetic vortex cores confined in stacked ferromagnetic (Fe) discs were observed three-dimensionally by using vector-field electron tomography with a 1.0 MV holography electron microscope [1]. To invent new functional materials and devices for establishing a sustainable society, methods for controlling atomic arrangements in small areas such as interfaces have become important [2,3]. Electron holography is a powerful tool for analyzing the origins of functions by observing electromagnetic fields and strains at high resolutions. The advantages of high-voltage electron holography are high resolution and penetration power due to high energy electron waves. The quest for finding the ultimate resolution through continuous improvements on holography electron microscopes led to the development of an aberration corrected 1.2 MV holography electron microscope [4,5] (Figure 1). We describe recent results obtained by using the high-voltage electron holography. Spatial resolution of 1.2 MV holography electron microscope reached 0.043 nm at high-resolutions, when the sample was placed in a high magnetic field of the objective lens [4]. Under the observation conditions, in which the sample was placed in a field-free position for observing a magnetic field, the spatial res