Low energy electron microscopy and photoemission electron microscopy facility for spectromicroscopy studies at surfaces

A new surface imaging facility has been established at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata for the study of real-time growth dynamics and surface structure characterization of solid materials, which is a first in the country. Low Energy Electron Microscopy (LEEM) and Photoemission Electron Microscopy (PEEM) are surface science technique that can be used to image atomically clean surface, atom-surface interactions, phase transitions and thin films. Both LEEM and PEEM methods are based on the cathode lens principle and have proven to be very important in many applications. LEEM-PEEM system offers a unique ability to acquire real-time images over a wide temperature range while providing high lateral resolution of few nanometres. Here, we present details of the facility along with the experimental results on different samples to demonstrate the performance of the system.