TOWARDS 0.1 NM RESOLUTION WITH THE FIRST SPHERICALLY CORRECTED TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPE

A hexapole corrector which compensates for the spherical aberration of the objective lens has been incorporated in a commercial 200 kV trans mission electron microscope (TEM) equipped with a field emission gun. The successful correction of the spherical aberration is demonstrated by decreasing the instrumental resolution limit from 0.24 nm down to a bout 0.13 nm. Images of Si-SiCO2 interfaces obtained with the correcte d TEM show a remarkable suppression of artefacts and a strong increase in contrast apart from the improved resolution. The design, alignment and the performance of the corrected instrument are outlined in detai l.