By Attolight
Quantitative Cathodoluminescence (q-CL): Developed by Attolight, q-CL enhances cathodoluminescence by using an aberration-corrected reflective objective instead of parabolic mirrors. This setup aligns optically with the SEM beam, allowing for precise, large-area luminescence mapping without intensity or resolution artifacts, enabling quantitative measurements across entire sample surfaces. Quantitative cathodoluminescence (q-CL) is a technique pioneered by Attolight, derived from regular cathodoluminescence. It involves the use of a reflective objective instead of off-axis parabolic mirrors or other non-imaging optics to collect luminescence signal from samples. The objective is aberration corrected and its optical axis is colinear with the scanning electron beam. Not only does this eliminate intensity and resolution artefacts during CL data acquisition, but also makes tool alignment significantly faster and enables high efficiency CL mappings over much larger areas than using regular add-on technologies. Using aberration-corrected collection optics enables one key advantage: Cathodoluminescence imaging over a large field of view, without degradation of the system’s optical performance (off-axis aberrations) or collection efficiency (vignetting). The large-surface light collection capability of Attolight’s optical system eliminates the need for adding a lateral alignment system to position the optics with respect to the electron beam. This also means that the system can record large-field-of-view (100’s of µm) maps with constant collection efficiency, thus becoming truly quantitative. To make the mechanical integration possible, the mirror is not a free-standing add on, but is integrated coaxially with the electron microscope column, meaning that the mirror is factory aligned once and doesn’t need further care.
