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Transport of Secondary Electrons Through a Film of Condensed Water; Implications for Imaging Wet Samples

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

I. C. Bache ,
B. L. Thiel ,
N. Stelmashenko  and
A. M. Donald
I. C. Bache
Affiliation:
Polymers & Colloids Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OHE
B. L. Thiel
Affiliation:
Polymers & Colloids Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OHE
N. Stelmashenko
Affiliation:
Polymers & Colloids Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OHE
A. M. Donald
Affiliation:
Polymers & Colloids Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OHE
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Extract

We have performed a theoretical and experimental study of the the effect that a surface layer of condensed water has on the emission of secondary electrons from the surface. This is an issue of considerable interest to users of the Environmental SEM (ESEM) when imaging wet samples. Previous work has been performed to investigate the effect of a layer of water on back scattered electrons (BSE), but secondary electron (SE) imaging is more commonly used in ESEM, so an understanding of the interactions of SE with water is important. The aim of this work is to quantify the thickness of water through which imaging is possible, by considering both the interactions of secondary electrons with the water, and the interactions of the water layer with the sample, which may affect the secondary electron emission coefficient, δ.

The effects that a surface layer of water may have on electron emission from a sample surface can be split into three regimes.

Type
Environmental SEM
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 3 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '97, Microscopy Society of America 55th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 31st Annual Meeting, Histochemical Society 48th Annual Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, August 10-14, 1997 , August 1997 , pp. 1199 - 1200
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1997

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References

REFERENCES

1.Shah, J. S., Proceedings of EUREM (1996)Google Scholar
2.Thiel, B. L., et al., to be published in J. Microsc. (1997)Google Scholar
3.Howie, A., J. Microsc. 180 ( 1995) 19210.1111/j.1365-2818.1995.tb03678.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. The authors would like to thank the BBSRC and the EU for their financial support of this workGoogle Scholar