AES, SAM, SEM
A small spot electron source generates primary electrons of several keV energy that are impinging on a sample surface. It produces an electron core hole. Driven by the Coulomb interaction an electron from a higher electronic state relaxes into this core hole and transfers its energy to another electron, that is finally emitted as the Auger-Meitner electron, named after Pierre Auger and Lise Meitner. These electrons are characteristic for an element and can be used for surface chemical analysis. By scanning across the sample a chemical map of the surface is generated with a lateral resolution simlar to the spot diameter of the primary electron source. The Auger-Meitner electrons are accompanied by secondary electrons, so that a secondary electron micrograph ist also generated in similar lateral resolution.
