Recent advances in X-ray photoelectron microscopy

A short discussion is first presented of x-ray photoelectron microscopes operated with laboratory x-ray sources. With typical laboratory sources, the spectroscopic contrast in the images is based on differences, in binding energy for the various chemical species, differential charging or photoelectron diffraction effects. Using synchrotron radiation, the initial and final states of the photoemission process can be defined and used to enhance chemical state information and contrast in laterally resolved images. Some recent examples from the authors group using synchrotron radiation in connection with a commercial x-ray photoelectron microscope (ESCASCOPE) to image lateral inhomogeneities in organic films and magnetic domains on magnetized substrates are discussed.