Better material insights with gentle e-beams
There are several ways to change a molecule, chemically or physically. One way is to heat it; another is to bombard it with light particles, or photons. A lesser known method relies on electron collision, or e-beam technology, which is becoming increasingly popular in industry. In a review outlining new research avenues based on electron scattering, Michael Allan from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and colleagues explain the subtle intricacies of the extremely brief electron-molecule encounter, in particular with gentle, i.e., very low energy electrons. In this paper, which was recently published in EPJ D, the authors describe how the use of very low energy electrons and a number of other performance criteria, make the approach with the so-called Fribourg instrument a more appealing candidate than previously available tools used to study electron collisions.