Experimental Laboratory Exercises

SEM

Emission current

Micromanipulators

Contacts

Maxwell contacts

Spreading resistance
profiling

Four point
resistivity measurements

Microspark erosion

EBIC

voltage contrast

Charging

Current mirror

      

Emission current

The emission current is typically between 10 pA and 500 pA depending on the acceleration voltage and the spot size. The current can be measured by focusing the beam into a Faraday cup. This is a metal container that is grounded through a current meter. The container has a small hole into which the electron beam is focused. Secondary electrons get trapped inside the cup.


The hole of our Faraday cup.

The beam current depends on the acceleration voltage, the spot size, the filament, and on the age of the filament. Measurements of the beam current as a function of spot size were performed for a particular filament for three different acceleration voltages. All of the data could be fit by a single function,

I = 8×10-6 V exp(0.15 SS).

Here V is the acceleration voltage in kV and SS is the spot size.


The emission current as a function of the spot size for three different acceleration voltages. The lines are given by the function I = 8×10-6 V exp(0.15 SS).