Hosted by: Yimei Zhu

Recent-generation TEM/STEM instruments fitted with an electron monochromator provide an energy resolution down to 0.01 eV for electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and are themselves capable of achieving a spatial resolution approaching 0.1 nm. Besides offering the possibility of vibrational-mode EELS for examining chemical bonds, these instruments could be useful for mapping the electronic properties (e.g. band gap) of insulators and semiconductors. However, basic physics imposes a spatial resolution of few nm (or tens of nm) for energy loss below 10 eV, due to delocalization of the inelastic scattering. We will discuss what might be done to improve the spatial resolution, to make low-loss EELS competitive with other techniques.