Deep Learning Enabled Nanoscale X-ray Photoemission Electron Microscopy (nanoXPEEM)

TL;DR

This paper introduces nanoXPEEM, a deep learning-based correction method for XPEEM that achieves 48-nm spatial resolution, enabling detailed nanoscale elemental and structural imaging in soft X-ray microscopy.

Contribution

The study presents a novel deep learning approach to correct aberrations in XPEEM, significantly enhancing spatial resolution and opening new possibilities for nanoscale material characterization.

Findings

Achieved 48-nm spatial resolution with nanoXPEEM.

Extended the field-of-view to 232 micrometers in soft X-ray regime.

Enabled element-specific, depth-sensitive nanoscale imaging.

Abstract

Understanding and manipulating two-dimensional materials for real-world applications remains challenging due to a lack of effective and high-throughput characterization techniques. Soft X-ray time-of-flight photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) provides element- and depth-sensitive information of materials and buried interfaces. However, chromatic and spherical aberrations cannot be corrected with electron-lens combinations. These aberrations, combined with astigmatism and space-charge effects, significantly degrade the spatial and energy resolutions. To overcome this limitation, we outline a spatial-attention based deep learning approach to automatically correct for these effects and attain nanometer resolution over the entire field-of-view (FoV). The combination of this corrective algorithm with XPEEM, termed as nanoXPEEM, establishes a new record of 48-nm spatial resolution with a 232-micrometer diameter FoV in the soft x-ray regime (700-1000 eV). nanoXPEEM provides unique spatial mapping of the element-specificity, depth-sensitivity, and local structure on the nanoscale. It can bridge the current gap to achieve angstrom (atomic) scale resolution.