Determining Electron Beam Lateral Coherence in a Scanning Electron Microscope Using Electron Diffraction

Evelijn Akerboom; Fatemeh Kiani; Giulia Tagliabue; Wiebke Albrecht; Joanne Etheridge; F. Javier García de Abajo; Albert Polman

arXiv · 2606.28056

Determining Electron Beam Lateral Coherence in a Scanning Electron Microscope Using Electron Diffraction

Evelijn Akerboom·Fatemeh Kiani·Giulia Tagliabue·Wiebke Albrecht·Joanne Etheridge·F. Javier García de Abajo·Albert Polman

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Abstract

We develop and characterize scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) capabilities within a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to investigate the effective lateral coherence of the electron beam (e-beam) in the specimen plane. Using single-crystalline Au flakes and a sample composed of a monolayer of graphene, we obtain high-quality selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) maps and convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) patterns, validating the systems ability to probe crystallographic information at an acceleration voltage of 30 keV. Building on these capabilities, we implement a method, which is adapted from techniques traditionally used in transmission electron microscopy, to measure the degree of lateral coherence of the e-beam in the specimen plane of the SEM. By analyzing interference between electrons with two different wave vectors separated by 0.031 per angstrom, we extract a lower limit for the degree of lateral coherence over 5% of the e-beam diameter of approximately 60%. These coherence values are sufficient to enable quantum-coherent electron-light-matter interaction experiments in the SEM.

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Evelijn Akerboom, Fatemeh Kiani, Giulia Tagliabue, Wiebke Albrecht, Joanne Etheridge, F. Javier García de Abajo, Albert Polman. 2026-06-26. Determining Electron Beam Lateral Coherence in a Scanning Electron Microscope Using Electron Diffraction. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.28056

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