Recent advances in chemical and magnetic imaging of surfaces and interfaces by XPEEM

Synchrotron-based photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) is one of the most powerful spectro-microscopic techniques for the investigation of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and buried layers. By exploiting the tunability and polarizability of x-ray sources as well as progress in electron optics design, modern XPEEM instruments can perform several x-ray spectroscopic investigations with a lateral resolution of a few tens of nanometres. We review here the latest developments in XPEEM, illustrating the state of the art capabilities of the technique. The usefulness of chemical and magnetic imaging XPEEM methods is demonstrated by examples of fundamental and applied studies in surface and material sciences, as well as other fields of application ranging from magnetism to biology and geology.