Physics and applications of electron-matter interaction simulations

Electrons with an energy ranging from 0 to 50 keV are among the most versatile tools in nanotechnology. A common example is the scanning electron microscope (SEM), which focuses an electron beam with an energy ranging from several hundred eV to tens of keV on a sample. When landing on the sample, the electrons in the beam penetrate the material. They can excite secondary electrons in the material, for example by ionization. Some of the electrons escape the sample again and reach a detector, where a high-resolution image of the sample is formed. Thanks to the small wavelength of electrons, a SEM is able to achieve single nanometre resolution while conventional optical microscopes are limited to hundreds of nanometres....