Electron beam damage analytical

It could be concluded from the above-mentioned experiments on the compulsive reduction of silicon oxide that the conditions of the long irradiation time and the low current is the preferable analytical conditions to reduce the reduction of the oxide film by the electron beam-induced damage. 

A very wide range of analytical techniques are used to characterize polymer materials (e.g., see references on polymer physics [49], thermal analysis [73,74], light microscopy [75,76], Raman [77, 78], x-ray scattering [79], various spectroscopies [80, 81], and a wide range of microscopy techniques [82]). A text on polymer blends also describes many polymer characterization techniques [83]. Texts on microscopy with a focus on biological materials are often useful for the polymer microscopist (e.g., [84,85]) as the materials have in common a tendency to be soft, to require contrast enhancement, and to suffer from radiation damage in electron beam instruments. The primary characterization of an... 

In this review results from two surface science methods are presented. Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA or XPS) is a widely used method for the study of organic and polymeric surfaces, metal corrosion and passivation studies and metallization of polymers (la). However, one major accent of our work has been the development of complementary ion beam methods for polymer surface analysis. Of the techniques deriving from ion beam interactions, Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS), used as a surface analytical method, has many advantages over electron spectroscopies. Such benefits include superior elemental sensitivity with a ppm to ppb detection limit, the ability to detect molecular secondary ions which are directly related to the molecular structure, surface compositional sensitivity due in part to the matrix sensitivity of secondary emission, and mass spectrometric isotopic sensitivity. The major difficulties which limit routine analysis with SIMS include sample damage due to sputtering, a poor understanding of the relationship between matrix dependent secondary emission and molecular surface composition, and difficulty in obtaining reproducible, accurate quantitative molecular information. Thus, we have worked to overcome the limitations for quantitation, and the present work will report the results of these studies. 

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