New carbon cone nanotip for use in a highly coherent cold field emission electron microscope

Florent Houdellier (1) , Aurélien Masseboeuf (1) , Marc Monthioux (1) , Martin Hÿtch (1)

1 CEMES - Centre d'élaboration de matériaux et d'études structurales

A new cathode for cold-field emission gun using a pyrolytic carbon-cone supported onto a carbon nanotube as the electron emitting tip has been developped. This tip was mounted in a TEM using a FIB based method, and the brightness measured under real operating conditions is 5 times better than obtained with a standard tungsten tip. Its use overcomes the many technical difficulties which have dogged the use of carbon nanotube-based tips as proposed replacements for tungsten tips. The resulting properties of the final CFEG exhibit a very good energy spread of 0.32eV, a reduced brightness of 1.6×10⁹ A.m⁻².sr⁻¹.V⁻¹ and a very good long-term stability with a current damping less than 16% per hour.

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

Florent Houdellier, Aurélien Masseboeuf, Marc Monthioux, Martin Hÿtch. New carbon cone nanotip for use in a highly coherent cold field emission electron microscope. Carbon, 2012, 50 (5), pp.2037-2044. ⟨10.1016/j.carbon.2012.01.023⟩. ⟨hal-00678407⟩