Complementary cathodoluminescence lifetime imaging configurations in a scanning electron microscope

•We obtained a pulse width of less than 30 ps at 5 keV and 165 ps at 30 keV in the electrostatic ultra-fast beam blanker configuration.•By using the autocorrelation function (g(2)) to measure the lifetime, no changes in the electron microscope settings are necessary, thereby preserving the intrinsic spatial resolution of the electron microscope in contrast with the ultra-fast beam blanker and photoemission configurations.•The time resolution of the ultra-fast beam blanker is dominated by the jitter in the electronic trigger line for short pulses (