title: A method to measure the effective gas path length in the environmental or variable pressure scanning electron microscope.
abstract: A simple method is described to determine the effective gas path length when incident electrons scatter in the gas above the specimen. This method is based on the measurement of a characteristic x-ray line emitted from a region close to the incident beam. From various experimental measurements performed on various microscopes, it is shown that the effective gas path length may increase with the chamber pressure and that it is also often dependent of the type of x-ray bullet.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mining, Metals and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Raynald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gauvin
authors.forename: Brendan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.forename: Clive
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nockolds
authors.forename: Mathew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Joy