I am looking into the possibility that spectroscopically usable infra red emission can be generated by an electron beam. I can melt plastic and dehydrate minerals with beam at 50 nA so I assume that I am generating heat a infra red spectra. Dr. George Rossman is a leader in infra red and Raman spectroscopy and says he is not aware of IR emission from the excitation volume of a probe spot. Looking for any thoughts on this. Bart Cannon
It definitely must be happening as it changes the nature of the carbon contamination.
See:
http://smf.probesoftware.com/index.php?topic=144.30
It could perhaps give a local thermal conductivity.
Perhaps lay down a series of spots at differing current, map for C and see where the contamination behaviour changes.
Could be a whole new microanalytical technique?
Could it perhaps tell the difference between Crystobalite, Quartz, Tridymite or fused SiO2 Glass?
I recall seeing "glow spots" on in-chamber IR camera in FIB/SEM when electron beam is cranked to >50nA, so the IR radiation is definitely there; off this forum's topic, but the glow in PFIB with beam current 1mA is so strong that it saturates IR camera! All you need to see what is really there and how useful could it be is slightly over $30K for NIR collection lens, fiber-coupled spectrometer (https://shop.spectrecology.com/product/nirquest-512-2-2-near-infrared-spectrometer-900-1900nm/), some feedthroughs/alignment fixtures, hardware skills, and time on the instrument...