Paper
25 September 1995 SEIII electrons in the scanning electron microscope: their production, detection, and effect on image quality
Maya Balasubramanyam, Eric Munro
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Abstract
Several types of electrons are produced in a Scanning Electron Microscope during the interaction of the primary beam with the sample. SEIII electrons are those produced when backscattered electrons emitted from the specimen collide with the walls of the specimen chamber and with the polepiece of the objective lens. These electrons constitute a large percentage of the total number of secondary electrons produced, so it is important to understand how they effect the quality of the image. SEIII electrons contain very low resolution information, so it is necessary to suppress them during high resolution imaging. However, the information contained in SEIII electrons relates closely to that contained in the backscattered electrons that are not collected, so when imaging at low magnifications it is possible that the SEIII signal may contain useful information. The work presented in this paper investigates the production and collection of SEIII electrons and, by simulating complete SEM images, the effect on the appearance of the final image can be investigated. This is done by first computing the numbers of electrons emitted from the sample, and hence the number of SEIII electrons produced, using a Monte Carlo simulation. The paths of the electrons within the chamber of the microscope can then be calculated using the software 3DELEC. Various detector configurations are analyzed in order to find the ones that produce optimum results for a range of working conditions.
© (1995) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Maya Balasubramanyam and Eric Munro "SEIII electrons in the scanning electron microscope: their production, detection, and effect on image quality", Proc. SPIE 2522, Electron-Beam Sources and Charged-Particle Optics, (25 September 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.221589
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KEYWORDS
Electrons

Sensors

Electrodes

Image quality

Scanning electron microscopy

Electron microscopes

Image resolution

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