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Toward Single Mode, Atomic Size Electron Vortex Beams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2014

Ondrej L. Krivanek ,
Jan Rusz ,
Juan-Carlos Idrobo ,
Tracy J. Lovejoy  and
Niklas Dellby
Ondrej L. Krivanek*
Affiliation:
Nion Co., 1102 8th St. Kirkland, WA 98033, USA
Jan Rusz
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Juan-Carlos Idrobo
Affiliation:
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
Tracy J. Lovejoy
Affiliation:
Nion Co., 1102 8th St. Kirkland, WA 98033, USA
Niklas Dellby
Affiliation:
Nion Co., 1102 8th St. Kirkland, WA 98033, USA
*
*Corresponding author. krivanek@nion.com
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Abstract

We propose a practical method of producing a single mode electron vortex beam suitable for use in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). The method involves using a holographic “fork” aperture to produce a row of beams of different orbital angular momenta, as is now well established, magnifying the row so that neighboring beams are separated by about 1 µm, selecting the desired beam with a narrow slit, and demagnifying the selected beam down to 1–2 Å in size. We show that the method can be implemented by adding two condenser lenses plus a selection slit to a straight-column cold-field emission STEM. It can also be carried out in an existing instrument, the monochromated Nion high-energy-resolution monochromated electron energy-loss spectroscopy-STEM, by using its monochromator in a novel way. We estimate that atom-sized vortex beams with ≥20 pA of current should be attainable at 100–200 keV in either instrument.

Keywords

vortex beamSTEMfork aperturemonochromator
Type
EDGE Special Issue
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , June 2014 , pp. 832 - 836
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2014 

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