Electron wave front modulation with patterned mirrors

We propose a microscopy scheme for the controlled modulation of the electron wave front that utilizes patterned electron mirrors. The ability to control the wave front of the electron finds many applications in electron microscopy, for instance in contrast enhancement techniques, beam mode conversion, low-dose imaging techniques such as quantum...

Simulation of Electron-Matter Interaction in Electron Beam Lithography and Metrology

Integrated circuit (IC) technology lies at the heart of today’s digital world. The immense amount of computational power that came along with the downscaling of circuits allowed us to place faster and smaller chips almost everywhere. However, with today’s requirements, even a one-nanometer error on those chips can drastically change the...

Creation of electron pulses with a laser-triggered micro fabricated electron beam deflector

This thesis is dedicated to the development of a beam blanker for Ultrafast Electron Microscopy. Ultrafast electron microscopy aims to resolve structural dynamics at the nanometer and (sub) picosecond time scale. In these temporal and spatial scales many important processes in physics, chemistry and biology do occur. Examples of these are the...

Physics and applications of electron-matter interaction simulations

Electrons with an energy ranging from 0 to 50 keV are among the most versatile tools in nanotechnology. A common example is the scanning electron microscope (SEM), which focuses an electron beam with an energy ranging from several hundred eV to tens of keV on a sample. When landing on the sample, the electrons in the beam penetrate the material....

Development and application of ultrafast scanning electron microscopy

Scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) can capture detail on the single nanometer length scale through the interaction of a tightly focused electron beam with a sample, but this impressive spatial resolution is not matched with a capability to resolve dynamic processes on the ultrafast time scale. A variety of processes occur at nanosecond and...

Controlled nano-patterning using focused electron beam induced deposition

Focused electron beam induced processing (FEBIP) comprising FEBID (deposition) and FEBIE (etching) is a direct write or etch, single step technique for high resolution nano-patterning. The whole process takes place inside a single tool, the scanning electron microscope (SEM). A focused electron beam hits the sample in the presence of a precursor...

High Speed Electron Microscopy: Engineering of a commercial multi-beam scanning electron microscope with transmission imaging

In this thesis, the design and engineering considerations for a multi-beam scanning electron microscope (MBSEM) are discussed. This microscope can benefit biological research in various ways. It can give new insights into the inner workings of a multitude of biological systems that were hard to get using previously existing instrumentation. For...

Cleanroom in an SEM

The work described in the doctoral thesis aims to enhance the functionality of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) by integrating miniaturized versions of cleanroom tools used in microfabrication. The thesis presents the integration of substrate heating, in-situ thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD), sputtering, and thermal evaporation within...

Electrostatic Lens System Design and Optimization Using Evolutionary Algorithms

The design of electrostatic charged particle lenses involves changing many geometrical parameters of the lens electrodes as well as changing the voltages at each lens electrodes. The objective of the design is often to get the electrons passing through the lens system to be focused at a specific point and to minimize the aberrations of the lens....