Can anyone describe when to use kV or keV when discussing electron microscopy? They seem to be used interchangeably, though it seems like it would make more sense to describe the actual energy of the primary electrons (keV) to me. Is the kV applied to the electron gun the same as the keV of the incident electrons?
Thanks!
for describing the voltage of electron microscope or accelerating voltage it must be used to report it by kV.
kV - voltage, like in "accelerating voltage of electron microscope"
keV - energy, used mostly in spectroscopy (EDS). Horizontal axis of a spectrum should be marked as keV; unfortunately many people mark it as kV. It's wrong, but so widely used...
Dear Rana Hamza Shakil
, discussing accelerating voltage you cannot measure it in keV, because keV is unit of energy. Two different animals.
If you accelerate an electron using 1 kV then it will have an energy of 1keV, so if you are dealing with electrons (or anything else with single charge) you get the same numbers whether you talk about the accelerating voltage (in volts) or the energy (in electron volts). This means that people that don't know the difference between voltage and energy just use the two interchangeably without realising they are different things. It is like describing the kinetic energy of a falling object by the distance it has fallen in decimetres, or in Joules. The two numbers are roughly the same, so you could say the energy is 10 decimetres, or 10 Joules (newton metres). (I know it is actually 9.8 Joules).
Well in my opinion it depends on the context. If you presenting microscope parameters used in imaging, I would prefer kV due to sensors on electron microscope measures voltage while extracting electrons NOT energy (unless Faraday cup detector is involved). If your context is specimen and electron beam interaction, keV should be okay, specifically in the EDS analysis.
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