The IDEA concept

The NanoESCA central element consists of the patented IDEA energy filter.
Please watch our animation of the NanoESCA working principle here.

Its concept is based on a tandem arrangement of two hemispherical energy analysers used as an imaging energy filter. The main spherical aberration (α²-term) of the analyser is corrected by the antisymmetry of the tandem configuration.

Besides elimination of the analyser’s spherical aberration, the tandem arrangement largely retains the time structure of the electron signal, unlike a single hemispherical analyser.

Schematic illustration of the basic design idea for the imaging double energy analyser.
The different schematic particle trajectories are drawn for the same kinetic start energies.

Schematic layout of the NanoESCA instrument. The three paths of the electrons are indicated: (1) PEEM-mode, (2) selected area spectroscopy, (3) energy-filtered ESCA imaging. The grey box envelops the elements of the PEEM mode.

Please watch our animation of the NanoESCA working principle here.

Side view of the bolt on NanoESCA instrument


View from the bolt on site (sample site) to the NanoESCA instrument

The final standard set-up of the instrument developed—called NanoESCA—is derived from an electrostatic photoemission electron microscope (PEEM) column and a twin hemispherical energy analyser (HSA).

To read more about the concept and the performance achieved we refer to one of our related papers.