An Extension of detectable energy-range of SXES spectrometer for electron microscopes

Terauchi, Masami*; Takahashi, Hideyuki*; Handa, Nobuo*; Murano, Takanori*; Koike, Masato; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Imazono, Takashi; Hasegawa, Noboru; Koeda, Masaru*; Nagano, Tetsuya*; Sasai, Hiroyuki*; Oue, Yuki*; Yonezawa, Zeno*; Kuramoto, Satoshi*

We have been developing a soft X-ray emission spectroscopy (SXES) instrument for electron microscopes (TEM, EPMA/SEM) with an extension of detectable energy range to 50-4000 eV. An introduction of valence electron spectroscopy with microscopy will supply fruitful information on bonding electrons, which cannot be obtained by EELS and EDS. For extend the lowest (or highest) detection energy upto 50 eV (or 4000 eV), a new laminar-type varied-line-spacing (VLS) grating, JS50XL, (or JS4000) has designed and manufactured. JS50XL and JS4000 having 1200 and 2400 lines/mm as well as coated by Au and a new multilayer-structure of W/BC for a wide-band energy region of 2000-3800 eV, respectively. Those gratings were installed and tested in a SXES spectrometer attached to a TEM. The extension in lowest detection energy was confirmed by Mg-L emission (JS50XL). The energy resolution was 0.2 eV at Fermi edge of 49.5 eV. It can be also seen a sharp Fermi edge for Li-K emission spectrum of metal-Li. The high energy resolution was confirmed by Te-La emission at 3.8 keV (JS4000). The full width at half maximum of the peak was 27 eV. The detection energy range was successfully extended by using the two new VLS-gratings.