Compensation of charging in X-PEEM: a successful test on mineral inclusions in 4.4 Ga old zircon.

We present a new differential-thickness coating technique to analyze insulating samples with X-ray PhotoElectron Emission spectroMicroscopy (X-PEEM). X-PEEM is non-destructive, analyzes the chemical composition and crystal structure of minerals and can spatially resolve chemical species with a resolution presently reaching 35 nm. We tested the differential coating by analyzing a 4.4 billion-year-old zircon (ZrSiO(4)) containing silicate inclusions. We observed quartz (SiO(2)) inclusions smaller than 1microm in size that can only be analyzed non-destructively with synchrotron spectromicroscopies. With the removal of charging we greatly extend the range of samples that can be analyzed by X-PEEM.