Neutral Helium Microscopy (SHeM): A Review

Abstract

Neutral helium atom microscopy, also referred to as scanning helium microscopy and commonly abbreviated SHeM or NAM (neutral atom microscopy), is a novel imaging technique that uses a beam of neutral helium atoms as an imaging probe. The technique offers a number of advantages such as the very low energy of the incident probing atoms (less than 0.1 eV), unsurpassed surface sensitivity (no penetration into the sample bulk), a charge neutral, inert probe and a high depth of field. This opens up for a range of interesting applications such as: imaging of fragile and/or non-conducting samples without damage, inspection of 2D materials and nano-coatings, with the possibility to test properties such as grain boundaries or roughness on the Angstr\"om scale (the wavelength of the incident helium atoms) and imaging of samples with high aspect ratios, with the potential to obtain true to scale height information of 3D surface topography with nanometer resolution: nano stereo microscopy. However, for a full exploitation of the technique, a range of experimental and theoretical issues still needs to be resolved. In this paper we review the research in the field. We do this by following the trajectory of the helium atoms step by step through the microscope: from the initial acceleration in the supersonic expansion used to generate the probing beam over the atom optical elements used to shape the beam, followed by interaction of the helium atoms with the sample (contrast properties) to the final detection and post-processing. We also review recent advances in scanning helium microscope design including a discussion of imaging with other atoms and molecules than helium.