Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A system for x-ray mapping, comprising:an ion beam focusing column;an electron focusing column for focusing an electron beam into a sufficiently small spot to resolve material separated by 15 nm;an x-ray optic for receiving x-rays emitted from the sample, the x-ray optic receiving and transmitting x-rays impinging on the optic entrance at angles up to at least 10 degrees; andmultiple x-ray detectors, each x-ray detector including:an absorber for absorbing x-rays exiting the x-ray optic; anda temperature sensing device for converting a change in temperature of the x-ray absorber into an electronic signal, the multiple x-ray detectors capable of resolving energy difference of 15 eV,the system capable of determining a material map composed of 100 pixels by 100 pixels while collecting x-rays for a period of less than twenty minutes. 2. The system of claim 1 in which the x-ray optic receives and transmits x-rays impinging on the optic entrance at angles up to at least 15 degrees. 3. The system of claim 1 in which the multiple x-ray detectors comprise at least nine x-ray detectors. 4. The system of claim 1 in which the x-ray optic comprises a bundle of capillaries. 5. The system of claim 1 in which the temperature sensing device includes a neutron transmutation doped germanium semiconductor. 6. The system of claim 1 further comprising one or more computers for controlling the system, the computers including memory computer storing a program for directing the ion beam focusing column to remove a layer of material from a portion of the sample, scanning the electron beam over at least a part of the portion of the sample, and recording the material present at different locations on multiple layers of the sample, the material being determined by information from the x-ray detectors. 7. The system of claim 1 in which the system is characterized by a figure of merit of greater than 500 nC−1 for the Mg K line of bulk Mg containing a native oxide irradiated by 5 keV electrons. 8. The system of claim 1 in which the system is capable of producing a signal to noise ratio of less than 4 for the Au M line emitted from bulk Au irradiated by 5 keV electrons. 9. A method of forming a high spatial resolution, high energy resolution x-ray map of a sample, comprising:a. directing a beam of electrons having energies of less than 5,000 eV toward a sample in a vacuum chamber, the electron beam forming a spot having a diameter of less than 50 nm on the sample;b. conducting x-rays created by the impact of the electrons on the sample through an x-ray optic towards multiple cryogenic x-ray detectors;c. determining the energy of the x-rays impacting the detector to determine the material present at the location at which the electron beam impacts the sample;d. moving the impact point of the electron beam to a different point on the surface and repeating steps b and c for an array of at least 5,000 points in a time period of less than one hour to produce a map of material present in the region scanned by the electron beam. 10. The method of claim 9 further comprising removing a layer of material including the points to which the electron beam was directed and repeating steps a-d for a second array of points below the first array of points to produce a three-dimensional x-ray map. 11. The method of claim 10 in which removing a layer of material includes directing a focused ion beam toward the sample to remove the layer of material without removing the sample from the vacuum chamber. 12. The method of claim 9 in which conducting x-rays created by the impact of the electrons on the sample through an x-ray optic towards multiple cryogenic x-ray detectors includes conducting x-rays using a bundle of capillaries, the bundle having an acceptance angle of greater than 10 degrees. 13. The method of claim 9 in which determining the energy of the x-rays impacting the detector includes measuring the increase in temperature of an x-ray absorber using a neutron transmutation doped germanium crystal. 14. The method of claim 9 in which moving the impact point of the electron beam to a different point on the surface and repeating steps b and c includes moving the impact point of the electron beam to an array of at least 10,000 points in a time period of less than one half hour to produce a map of material present in the region scanned by the electron beam. 15. The method of claim 9 conducting x-rays created by the impact of the electrons on the sample through an x-ray optic towards multiple cryogenic x-ray detectors includes focusing the x-rays onto multiple detectors. 16. The method of claim 9 conducting x-rays created by the impact of the electrons on the sample through an x-ray optic towards multiple cryogenic x-ray detectors includes defocusing the x-rays to spread them over multiple detectors. 17. A system for x-ray mapping of a sample to show the material present at different positions on the sample, comprising:an electron focusing column capable of focusing an electron beam to a sufficiently small beam spot to resolve material separated by 15 nm;an x-ray optic for receiving x-rays emitted from the sample, the entrance to the x-ray optic receiving x-rays over a solid angle of at least 10 degrees; andmultiple x-ray detectors, each x-ray detector including:an absorber for absorbing x-rays exiting the x-ray optic; anda temperature sensing device for converting a change in temperature of the x-ray absorber into an electronic signal, the multiple x-ray detectors are capable of resolving energy difference of 15 eV,the system capable of determining a material map composed of 100 by 100 pixels while collecting x-rays for a period of less than twenty minutes. 18. The system of claim 17 in which the multiple x-ray detectors comprise at least nine x-ray detectors. 19. The system of claim 17 in which the temperature sensing device includes a neutron transmutation doped germanium semiconductor. 20. The system of claim 17 further comprising one or more computers for controlling the system, the computers including memory computer storing a program for directing the ion beam focusing column to remove a layer of material from a portion of the sample, scanning the electron beam over at least a part of the portion of the sample, and recording the material present at different locations on multiple layers of the sample, the material being determined by information from the x-ray detectors. 21. The system of claim 17 in which the system is characterized by a figure of merit of greater than 1000 nC−1 for the Au M line emitted from bulk Au irradiated by 5 keV electrons.