Field emission microscopy

Field emission microscopy (FEM) is an analytical technique used in materials science to investigate molecular surface structures and their electronic properties. Invented by Erwin Wilhelm Müller in 1936, the FEM was one of the first surface analysis instruments that approached near-atomic resolution.

Microscopy techniques are used to produce real space magnified images of a surface showing what it looks like. In general microscopy information concerns surface crystallography (i.e. how the atoms are arranged at the surface), surface morphology (i.e. the shape and size of topographic features making the surface), and surface composition (the elements and compounds the surface is composed of).

Field emission microscopy (FEM) was invented by Erwin Müller in 1936. In FEM, the phenomenon of field electron emission was used to obtain an image on the detector on the basis of the difference in work function of the various crystallographic planes on the surface.

A Field Emission Microscope consists of a metallic sample in the form of a sharp tip and a conducting fluorescent screen enclosed in ultrahigh vacuum. The tip radius used is typically of the order of 100 nm. It is composed of a metal with a high melting point, such as tungsten. The sample is held at a large negative potential (1-10 kV) relative to the fluorescent screen. This gives the electric field near the tip apex to be the order of 10¹⁰ V/m which is high enough for field emission of electrons to take place. Fig.1 shows the experimental set up for FEM.

The field emitted electrons travel along the field lines and produce bright and dark patches on the fluorescent screen giving a one-to-one correspondence with the crystal planes of the hemispherical emitter. The emission current varies strongly with the local work function in accordance with the Fowler-Nordheim equation; hence, the FEM image displays the projected work function map of the emitter surface. The closely packed faces have higher work functions than atomically rough regions and thus they show up in the image as dark spots on the brighter background. In short, the work function anisotropy of the crystal planes is mapped onto the screen as intensity variations.

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