Photoelectron Microscopy Projects at SRRC

The combination of traditional surface-spectroscopic methods and microscopic imaging techniques is gaining popularity along with the advances of nanotechnology. Among the available techniques, scanning photoelectron microscopy (SPEM) and photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) are two methods recently developed at the Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (SRRC). The SPEM station uses a Fresnel zone-plate optics to focus the soft X-ray beam and form a microprobe. Photoelectrons emitted from the illuminated spot are used to perform micro-photoelectron spectroscopy (μ-PES) measurements or to image the sample. The PEEM station, on the other hand, collects secondary electrons emitted from the sample upon photon irradiation, and uses an all-electrostatic column to magnify the field of view defined by the objective lens. By stepping the photon energy, micro-X-ray absorption spectra (μ-XAS) can be extracted from a sequence of images after proper image processing.