The energy dispersion characteristics of a magnetic beam separator

Abstract

This paper presents an energy spectrometer design for scanning electron microscopy, where the spectrum of secondary, Auger and backscattered electrons can be captured at the same time. The spectrometer is based upon the use of a magnetic sector beam separator that deflects the primary beam while dispersing the scattered electrons. A series of retarding field magnetic sector post-deflectors is used to focus the scattered electrons on to a multi-channel detector plane. Initial simulation results predict that prefocusing the scattered electrons into the beam separator via a transfer lens will significantly reduce the effect of angular dispersion and improve the beam separator spectrometer's energy resolution. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.