In-Lens Band-Pass Filter for Secondary Electrons in Ultrahigh Resolution SEM
Institute of Scientific Instruments of the CAS, v. v. i., Královopolská 147, 612 64 Brno, Czech Republic
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Materials 2019, 12(14), 2307; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12142307
Received: 20 June 2019
/
Revised: 11 July 2019
/
Accepted: 17 July 2019
/
Published: 19 July 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Progress on Electron Microscopies for Characterizing Microstructures)
Scanning electron microscopes come equipped with different types of detectors for the collection of signal electrons emitted from samples. In-lens detection systems mostly consist of several auxiliary electrodes that help electrons to travel in a direction towards the detector. This paper aims to show that a through-the-lens detector in a commercial electron microscope Magellan 400 FEG can, under specific conditions, work as an energy band-pass filter of secondary electrons that are excited by the primary beam electrons. The band-pass filter properties verify extensive simulations of secondary and backscattered electrons in a precision 3D model of a microscope. A unique test sample demonstrates the effects of the band-pass filter on final image and contrast with chromium and silver stripes on a silicon substrate, manufactured by a combination of e-beam lithography, wet etching, and lift-off technique. The ray tracing of signal electrons in a detector model predicate that the through-the-lens detector works as a band-pass filter of the secondary electrons with an energy window of about 3 eV. By moving the energy window along the secondary electron energy spectrum curve of the analyzed material, we select the energy of the secondary electrons to be detected. Energy filtration brings a change in contrast in the image as well as displaying details that are not otherwise visible.
View Full-Text
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Konvalina, I.; Mika, F.; Krátký, S.; Materna Mikmeková, E.; Müllerová, I. In-Lens Band-Pass Filter for Secondary Electrons in Ultrahigh Resolution SEM. Materials 2019, 12, 2307. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12142307
AMA Style
Konvalina I, Mika F, Krátký S, Materna Mikmeková E, Müllerová I. In-Lens Band-Pass Filter for Secondary Electrons in Ultrahigh Resolution SEM. Materials. 2019; 12(14):2307. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12142307
Chicago/Turabian StyleKonvalina, Ivo, Filip Mika, Stanislav Krátký, Eliška Materna Mikmeková, and Ilona Müllerová. 2019. "In-Lens Band-Pass Filter for Secondary Electrons in Ultrahigh Resolution SEM" Materials 12, no. 14: 2307. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12142307
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
