Study of inelastic mean free path of metal nanostructures using energy filtered transmission electron microscopy imaging

We report a simple method for measuring the inelastic mean free path of nanostructures of known geometry using energy filtered transmission electron microscopy imaging. The mean free path of inelastic electrons was measured by using systems having known symmetry, such as cylindrical or cubic, combined with Poisson statistics without employing the knowledge of microscope parameters, namely the convergence angle and the collection angle. Having inherent symmetry of such systems, their absolute thickness can be measured from their two-dimensional projection images.