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Mechanisms of radiation damage in beam‐sensitive specimens, for TEM accelerating voltages between 10 and 300 kV
Author(s) -
Egerton R.F.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.22099
Subject(s) - radiation damage , stopping power , ionization , acceleration voltage , radiolysis , scattering , materials science , electron , irradiation , secondary electrons , beam (structure) , radiation , displacement (psychology) , atomic physics , hydrogen , cross section (physics) , chemistry , cathode ray , optics , nuclear physics , physics , ion , detector , psychology , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , psychotherapist
Ionization damage (radiolysis) and knock‐on displacement are compared in terms of scattering cross section and stopping power, for thin organic specimens exposed to the electrons in a TEM. Based on stopping power, which includes secondary processes, radiolysis is found to be predominant for all incident energies (10–300 keV), even in materials containing hydrogen. For conducting inorganic specimens, knock‐on displacement is the only damage mechanism but an electron dose exceeding 1000 C cm −2 is usually required. Ways of experimentally determining the damage mechanism (with a view to minimizing damage) are discussed. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.