Electron beams (e-beams) have been applied as detecting probes and clean energy sources in many applications. In this work, we investigated several approaches for measurement and estimation of the range and distribution of local temperatures on a subject surface under irradiation of nano-microscale e-beams. We showed that a high-intensity e-beam with current density of 105-6 A/cm2 could result in vaporization of solid Si and Au materials in seconds, with a local surface temperature higher than 3000 K. With a lower beam intensity to 103-4 A/cm2, e-beams could introduce local surface temperature in the range of 1000-2000 K shortly, causing local melting in metallic nanowires and Cr, Pt, and Pd thin films, and phase transition in metallic Mg-B films. We demonstrated that thin film thermocouples on a freestanding Si3N4 window were capable of detecting peaked local surface temperatures up to 2000 K and stable, and temperatures in a lower range with a high precision. We discussed the distribution of surface temperatures under e-beams, thermal dissipation of thick substrate, and a small converting ratio from the high kinetic energy of e-beam to the surface heat. The results may offer some clues for novel applications of e-beams.
Keywords: Electron beam; Energy converting; Local temperature; Melting point; Nanoscale thermometry; Scanning electron microscopy; Thin film thermocouple; Transmission electron microscopy; Vaporization.