The Use of a Lanthanum Hexaboride Filament in a Transmission Electron Microscope - The Philips EM-400

Abstract

The use of lanthanum hexaboride (LaBg) as an electron source in scanning electron microscopes equipped with an ion pumped emission chamber at less than 10~6 torr, has proven to be very advantageous. It was not until the introduction of the Philips EM-400 that a standard commercially available transmission electron microscope was differentially pumped between the emission chamber and the viewing chamber and capable of achieving a vacuum suitable for utilizing this type of electron source.Only minor modifications were necessary to use the LaBg filament (Kimbal Physics, Wilton, N.H.) in the Philips EM-400 electron microscope. The Wehnelt cap was modified so that the Wehnelt aperture can be removed without disassembly of the cap (Fig. 1). The Wehnelt aperture is 0.7 mm in diameter. A simple spanner wrench is used to remove the Wehnelt aperture. Rough centering of the filament was quite easy using a Zeiss operating stereomicroscope at 25X with the Wehnelt aperture removed.