High-endurance micro-engineered LaB6 nanowire electron source for high-resolution electron microscopy

The size tunability and chemical versatility of nanostructures enable electron sources of high brightness and temporal coherence, both of which are important characteristics for high-resolution electron microscopy^1-3. Despite intensive research efforts in the field, so far, only conventional field emitters based on a bulk tungsten (W) needle have been able to yield atomic-resolution images. The absence of viable alternatives is in part caused by insufficient fabrication precision for nanostructured sources, which require an alignment precision of subdegree angular deviation of a nanometre-sized emission area with the macroscopic emitter axis⁴. To overcome this challenge, in this work we micro-engineered a LaB₆ nanowire-based electron source that emitted a highly collimated electron beam with good lateral and angular alignment. We integrated a passive collimator structure into the support needle tip for the LaB₆ nanowire emitter. The collimator formed an axially symmetric electric field around the emission tip of the nanowire. Furthermore, by means of micromanipulation, the support needle tip was bent to align the emitted electron beam with the emitter axis. After installation in an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope, we characterized the performance of the electron source in a vacuum of 10^-8 Pa and achieved atomic resolution in both broad-beam and probe-forming modes at 60 kV beam energy. The natural, unmonochromated 0.20 eV electron energy loss spectroscopy resolution, 20% probe-forming efficiency and 0.4% probe current peak-to-peak noise ratio paired with modest vacuum requirements make the LaB₆ nanowire-based electron source an attractive alternative to the standard W-based sources for low-cost electron beam instruments.