THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRON SPECTROMICROSCOPY

Three closely related techniques, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X- ray absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, have become widely accepted as important tools for the study of the chemic al composition and electronic properties of surfaces, overlayers, and interfaces. There is now a major effort to push these spectroscopic te chniques into a new realm of applications with very high spatial resol ution, at and below 1 mu m. This results in a new set of probes which can create images of chemical composition with great subtlety. The fie ld is growing rapidly as high brightness sources of X-rays become avai lable. The goals and methods used in electron spectromicroscopy and re lated X-ray microscopies are discussed, and recent applications of ins truments developed in the last few years are used to illustrate the st rengths of these new microscopes.