title: Low-energy cathodoluminescence microscopy for the characterization of nanostructures.
abstract: Spatially and spectrally resolved low-energy cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy was applied to the characterization of nanostructures. CL has the advantage of revealing not only the presence of luminescence centers but also their spatial distribution. The use of electrons as an excitation source allows a direct comparison with other electron-beam techniques. Thus, CL is a powerful method to correlate luminescence with the sample structure and to clarify the origin of the luminescence. However, caution is needed in the quantitative analysis of CL measurements. In this review, the advantages of cathodoluminescence for qualitative analysis and disadvantages for quantitative analysis are presented on the example of nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Electronic Materials Center, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan; Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-0003, Japan.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dierre
authors.affiliation: Advanced Electronic Materials Center, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Advanced Electronic Materials Center, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan; Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-0003, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sekiguchi
keywords: cathodoluminescence; electron beam; nanostructures; phosphors; rare-earth; wide band-gap semiconductors