Preface
This book is a theoretical introduction to the optics of charged particle beams. The purpose is to identify the most important ideas
and derive them mathematically from first principles of physics.
It is a teaching document, intended for an audience of students in
the broad sense. As a science book, it focuses on basic principles in
a connected way. It is intended for the intelligent non-expert who
is comfortable with calculus at an advanced undergraduate level.
Experts, including experimentalists, instrument designers, and instrument users, will also find it to be a convenient reference for
understanding the theoretical origins of the subject.
Enormous experimental progress has been made in recent years,
culminating in commercial availability of aberration-corrected
transmission electron microscopes with resolution below 0.1 nm,
energy analyzers with resolution in the meV range, and gas field
ion microscopes with resolution below 1.0 nm, to name a few examples. These innovations are built upon the ongoing efforts of
pioneers over the past decades. These advances enable an evergrowing array of applications at the atomic scale of dimensions.
Unfortunately, the underlying theory can appear arcane and baffling to someone who is new to the field. One cannot possibly understand aberration correction without first having a firm grasp
on optics in the paraxial approximation, and the origin of the primary aberrations, for example.
This book is intended to convey an intuitive understanding of the
basics, as opposed to presenting a comprehensive compendium of
the detailed subject. It is meant to be logical, with each step folix
This book is a theoretical introduction to the optics of charged particle beams. The purpose is to identify the most important ideas
and derive them mathematically from first principles of physics.
It is a teaching document, intended for an audience of students in
the broad sense. As a science book, it focuses on basic principles in
a connected way. It is intended for the intelligent non-expert who
is comfortable with calculus at an advanced undergraduate level.
Experts, including experimentalists, instrument designers, and instrument users, will also find it to be a convenient reference for
understanding the theoretical origins of the subject.
Enormous experimental progress has been made in recent years,
culminating in commercial availability of aberration-corrected
transmission electron microscopes with resolution below 0.1 nm,
energy analyzers with resolution in the meV range, and gas field
ion microscopes with resolution below 1.0 nm, to name a few examples. These innovations are built upon the ongoing efforts of
pioneers over the past decades. These advances enable an evergrowing array of applications at the atomic scale of dimensions.
Unfortunately, the underlying theory can appear arcane and baffling to someone who is new to the field. One cannot possibly understand aberration correction without first having a firm grasp
on optics in the paraxial approximation, and the origin of the primary aberrations, for example.
This book is intended to convey an intuitive understanding of the
basics, as opposed to presenting a comprehensive compendium of
the detailed subject. It is meant to be logical, with each step folix