Publisher Summary In energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM), the zero-loss electrons or electrons passing an energy-loss window of the electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) are used for image formation. This can be achieved by using the scanning mode in a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) or in a TEM with a spectrometer behind the camera chamber or by using an imaging filter lens in the column of a TEM. The conventional TEM and STEM modes can be combined in this way with the mode of electron spectroscopic imaging (ESI) and electron spectroscopic diffraction (ESD), and different modes can be used to record an EELS spectrum. An EFTEM can therefore make full use of elastic and inelastic electron-specimen interactions. This chapter provides an overview of the physical background and the possibilities of EFTEM. The relevant physics of elastic and inelastic scattering is also discussed followed by the instrumentation of EFTEM. The theoretical approaches for understanding the contrast and examples of application are presented for ESI and for ESD.

Energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy

http://xrm.phys.northwestern.edu/research/pdf_papers/2007/egerton_ultramic_2007.pdf

Limits to the spatial, energy and momentum resolution of electron energy-loss spectroscopy

Electron spectroscopic imaging: parallel energy filtering and microanalysis in the fixed-beam electron microscope.

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/29814/0000160.pdf;sequence=1

Quantitative energy-filtered electron microscopy of biological molecules in ice.

The principle of the microprobe analysis of chemical elements is illustrated in Fig. i. Some kind of radiation is directed on to the specimen, generating signals characteristic of the elements present. Local analysis in situ is achieved in one of two ways. Most often the impinging beam is finely focused so that the signal at any moment comes only from a selected microregion. Alternatively, in some instruments, the impinging beam floods a larger region but the emergent signals characteristic of a particular element may be selected and focused to give an elemental ‘map’ or ‘image’.

The localization and assay of chemical elements by microprobe methods.

SUMMARY

An electron energy filter of the Castaing-Henry type in a high resolution transmission electron microscope was tested for sensitivity and spatial resolution at a specific electron energy loss in energy selected images of a murine leukaemia virus. Electron spectroscopic images of phosphorus within the virus membrane bilayer demonstrated a best spatial resolution between 0·3 and 0·5 nm and a sensitivity of 2 × 10−21 g.

K. M. Adamson‐Sharpe

Papers

Spatial resolution and detection sensitivity in microanalysis by electron energy loss selected imaging