Development of high-resolution cathodoluminescence system for STEM and application to plasmonic nanostructures

A high-resolution cathodoluminescence (CL) system for scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) has been developed by employing a field emission gun and a spherical aberration corrector, which realizes a probe size of 1 nm even at an accelerating voltage of 80 kV and beam current of the order of 1 nA. Angle resolved measurement of light emission from a sample in the STEM is possible by combining a parabolic mirror and position-controlled pinhole. CL spectra are successively acquired by a highly sensitive charge-coupled device while scanning the incident electron beam or pinhole, which enables various detection modes, i.e. (i) angle resolved spectral pattern, (ii) beam scan spectral image and (iii) photon map. In order to calibrate the acquired spectrum, the correction function is created from the comparison between the observed and theoretical spectra of the transition radiation. Furthermore, the modification of polarization by the parabolic mirror is discussed. Some examples of the applications of the STEM-CL system to plasmonics are presented to demonstrate the unique measurement features of the CL system, i.e. (i) multipole modes in silver nanoparticles, (ii) surface plasmon polariton modes in a 2D plasmonic crystal and (iii) localized surface plasmon modes in a gold bow tie nano-antenna.