Electron diffraction gratings can be used to imprint well-defined phase structure onto an
electron beam. For example, diffraction gratings have been used to prepare electron beams
with unique phase dislocations, such as electron vortex beams, which hold promise for the
development of new imaging and spectroscopy techniques for the study of materials.
However, beam intensity loss associated with absorption, scattering, and diffraction by a
binary transmission grating drastically reduces the current in the beam, and thus the …

Traditional TEM electron beams are designed reproduce a plane wave inasmuch as this is
possible. However, non-gaussian beam profiles can be useful for new forms of TEM and
STEM techniques such as electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD)[1, 2]. Central to this
is the ability to reliably and efficiently create the desired waveform. For this we look at the
use of phase gratings milled via FIB milling on a 20 nm–75 nm thick Si3N4 membrane.
Phase gratings, as opposed to amplitude gratings, allow for higher efficiency–greater than …