A charged particle beam device that detects a secondary charged particle beam generated by irradiation of a sample by a primary charged particle beam, includes: an image shift deflector that shifts an irradiation region for irradiation of the sample by the primary charged particle beam; a magnetic sector that separates the primary charged particle beam passing therein from the secondary charged particle beam from the sample using a magnetic field generated therein; a correction mechanism that is placed off of a trajectory of the primary charged particle beam but on a trajectory of the secondary charged particle beam inside the magnetic sector, the correction mechanism deflecting the secondary charged particle beam passing through; and a controller that controls the correction mechanism according to a defined relationship between a shift amount by the image shift deflector and a correction amount by the correction mechanism.

The objective of the present invention is to propose a charged particle beam device with which an imaging optical system and an irradiation optical system can be adjusted with high precision. In order to achieve this objective, provided is a charged particle beam device comprising: a first charged particle column which serves as an irradiation optical signal; a deflector that deflects charged particles which have passed through the inside of the first charged particle column toward an object; and a second charged particle column which serves as an imaging optical system. The charged particle beam device is provided with: a light source that emits light toward the object; and a control device that obtains, on the basis of detection charged particles generated according to irradiation of light emitted from the light source, a plurality of deflection signals which maintain a certain deflection state, and that selects or calculates, from the plurality of deflection signals or from relationship information produced from the plurality of deflection signals, a deflection signal that satisfies a predetermined condition.

A charged particle beam apparatus includes a charged particle source, a separator, a charged particle beam irradiation switch, and a control device. The separator is inserted into a charged particle optical system and deflects a traveling direction of a charged particle beam out of an optical axis of the charged particle optical system or deflects the traveling direction in the optical axis of the charged particle optical system. The charged particle beam irradiation switch absorbs the charged particle beam deflected out of the optical axis of the charged particle optical system or reflects the charged particle beam toward the separator. The control device controls a charged particle beam irradiation switch.

Provided herein are articles of manufacture, systems, and methods employing a gas-deflector plate in low to ultra-high vacuum systems that use differential pumping (e.g., gas-target particle accelerators, mass spectrometers, and windowless delivery ports). In certain embodiments, the gas-deflector plate is configured to be positioned between higher and lower pressure regions in a pressurized system, wherein the gas-deflector plate has a channel therethrough shaped and/or angled such that jetting gas moving through the channel enters the lower pressure region at an angle offset from the vertical axis of the gas-deflector plate and/or the channel. In other embodiments, a jet-deflector component is employed such that the jetting gas strikes such jet-deflector component and is re-directed in another direction.

An electron reflectometer includes: a sample stage; a source that produces source electrons; a source collimator; and an electron detector that receives collimated reflected electrons.

A method for treating a substrate surface uses Neutral Beam irradiation derived from a gas-cluster ion-beam and articles produced thereby including lithography photomask substrates.

A method for Neutral Beam irradiation derived from gas cluster ion beams and articles produced thereby including optical elements.

A method of treating a surface of a silicon substrate forms an accelerated gas cluster ion beam of carbon atoms, promotes fragmentation and/or dissociation of gas cluster ions in the beam, removes charged particles from the beam to form a neutral beam, and treats a portion of a surface of the silicon substrate by irradiating it with the neutral beam. A silicon substrate surface layer of SiC.sub.X (0.05<X<3) formed by accelerated and focused Neutral Beam irradiation of a silicon substrate wherein the Neutral Beam is derived from a gas cluster ion beam which has had its cluster ions dissociated and charged particles removed.

A system and method of a tilt-column electron beam imaging system is disclosed. The system may include an imaging sub-system. The imaging sub-system may include a plurality of electron beam sources configured to generate a plurality of beamlets. The imaging sub-system may further include a plurality of tilt-illumination columns, where a respective tilt-illumination column is configured to receive a respective beamlet from a respective electron beam source. For the system and method, a first tilt axis of a first tilt-illumination column may be orientated along a first angle and at least one additional tilt axis of at least one additional tilt-illumination column may be orientated along at least one additional angle different from the first angle, where each of the plurality of beamlets pass through a first common crossover volume.

Methods for using a single electron microscope system for investigating a sample with twin electron beams having different focal lengths include the steps of emitting electrons toward the sample, forming the electrons into a two beams, and then modifying the focal properties of at least one of the two beams such that they have different focal planes. Once the two beams have different focal planes, the first electron beam is focused at the sample, and the second electron beam is focused so that it acts as a TEM beam that is parallel beam when incident on the sample. Emissions resultant from the first electron beam and the TEM beam being incident on the sample can then be detected by a single detector or detector array and used to generate a TEM image.