New electron beam methods for materials microcharacterization

Developments of modern technologies force materials scientists looking deeply into material inner structures to find answers for more and more high demands and challenges of superior material properties and possible sources of creating new materials. When the working scale shrinks to the sub-micrometer even atomic level, one has to rely on the microcharacterization techniques, especially the electron-optical methods, to perform the tasks. Electron microscopy is the most common means of material microcharacterization. Increasingly electron microscopy is becoming a quantitative rather than a qualitative science. In this dissertation two new quantitative methods have been developed for materials chemical and electrical microcharacterization. A new Monte Carlo method has been developed for studying the spatial resolution of X-ray thin film microanalysis. New experimental techniques and quantitative analysis methods have been developed for charge collection electron microscopy. With the development of field-emission gun transmission electron microscope, electron holography becomes a reality to materials scientists, which opens a new window for materials study. The major work in this dissertation is devoted to the development of electron holography techniques for materials analysis with new application on study of ferroelectric domain wall structure. The technique being developed allows the direct imaging of domain wall structure and quantitative measurement of local polarization.