Time‐resolved cathodoluminescence in a scanning electron microscope

Abstract

Ultra-fast transmission electron microscopy (UTEM) combines sub-picosecond timeresolution with the versatility of TEM spectroscopies. It allows one to study the dynamics of materials properties combining complementary techniques. However, until now, timeresolved cathodoluminescence, that is expected to give access to the optical properties dynamics, was still unavailable in a UTEM. In this paper we report time-resolved cathodoluminescence measurements in an ultrafast transmission electron microscope. We measured lifetime maps, with a 12 nm spatial resolution and sub-nanoseconds resolution, of nano-diamonds with a high density of NV center. This study paves the way to new applications of UTEM and to correlative studies of optically active nanostructures.