Measurement of the Point Spread Function for Low-Loss Inelastic Scattering

The delocalization of inelastic scattering is described by a point spread function PSF(r) that represents the scattering probability as a function of the distance r from the trajectory of an incident electron. For core-loss scattering, the PSF has sub-nm or even subatomic dimensions but for low-loss scattering (energy loss E < 50 eV) its width can be several nm or tens of nm. This width determines the spatial resolution of TEM-image features that arise from inelastic scattering, and partially determines the minimum line-width achievable in electron-beam lithography [1] or e-beam deposition