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Conditions required for detection of specimen‐specific SE‐I secondary electrons in an analytical SEM
Author(s) -
Apkarian Robert P.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.1989.tb00580.x
Subject(s) - brightness , wafer , materials science , optics , secondary electrons , magnification , common emitter , acceleration voltage , electron gun , scanning electron microscope , detector , silicon , resolution (logic) , signal (programming language) , optoelectronics , cathode ray , electron , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
An analytical SEM equipped with an above‐the‐lens detector, an in‐the‐lens specimen stage and a high brightness LaB 6 emitter was used to produce a specimen‐specific, secondary electron‐I (SE‐I) signal for recording edge brightness contrast with high intensity on small particles at high magnification (200,000). The SE‐I edge brightness contrast produced from 20–40 nm colloidal gold on silicon wafers was useful for estimating instrument resolution since the edge brightness is the sum of the SE‐I signal range (≌ 1 nm) and the beam diameter. LaB 6 crystal saturation and gun conditions were determined in order to minimize the probe diameter at the first cross‐over position. Ferritin particles also on the silicon wafers were imaged by adjustments of the gun bias voltage conditions. Establishment of these conditions was useful for high resolution SEM studies of appropriately coated bulk biological specimens.