When an electrode (29) such as a grid applied with a negative voltage is installed in front of an objective lens (23), low energy electrons among secondary electrons (25) generated from a sample (24) by an electron beam or the like is reflected by the electrode to come into a detector (22) installed in the sample (24) side, while electrons of higher energy are not detected, since they are not reflected by the electrode. Accordingly, since only the electrons of lower energy of the secondary electrons can be detected by discriminating the secondary electrons by the energy, it is possible to obtain a detection signal, e.g., rich in the information on the surface state of the sample.

A deceleration apparatus capable of decelerating a short spot beam or a tall ribbon beam is disclosed. In either case, effects tending to degrade the shape of the beam profile are controlled. Caps to shield the ion beam from external potentials are provided. Electrodes whose position and potentials are adjustable are provided, on opposite sides of the beam, to ensure that the shape of the decelerating and deflecting electric fields does not significantly deviate from the optimum shape, even in the presence of the significant space-charge of high current low-energy beams of heavy ions.

A Transmission Charged-Particle Microscope comprises a source of charged particles which are then directed by an illuminator onto a specimen supported by a specimen holder. Charged particles transmitted through the specimen may undergo energy loss with a distribution of losses providing information about the specimen. A dispersing device disperses the transmitted charged particles into an energy-resolved array of spectral sub-beams distributed along a dispersion direction. The dispersed charged particles are detected by a detector comprising an assembly of sub-detectors arranged along said dispersion direction, whereby different sub-detectors are adjustable to have different detection sensitivities.

A magnetic system for uniformly scanning an ion beam across a semiconductor wafer comprises a magnetic scanner having ac and dc coil windings each of which extend linearly along internal pole faces of a magnetic core. The ac and dc coil windings are mutually orthogonal; a time dependent magnetic component causes ion beam scanning while a substantially static (dc) field component allows the ion beam to be bent in an orthogonal plane. The current density in the ac and dc coil windings is uniformly dispersed along the pole faces leading to an improved beam spot uniformity at the wafer. The magnetic system also includes a collimator having first and second mutually opposed symmetrical dipoles defining an aperture between them. The poles of each dipole have a pole face varying monotonically and polynomially in a direction perpendicular to a central axis of the collimator: an increasing pole gap is formed towards that central axis.

An apparatus may include an electrostatic filter having a plurality of electrodes; a voltage supply assembly coupled to the plurality of electrodes; a cleaning ion source disposed between the electrostatic filter and a substrate position, the cleaning ion source generating a plasma during a cleaning mode, wherein a dose of ions exit the cleaning ion source; and a controller having a first component to generate a control signal for controlling the voltage supply assembly, wherein a negative voltage is applied to at least one of the plurality of electrodes when the plasma is generated.

A chicane blanker assembly for a charged particle beam system includes an entrance and an exit, at least one neutrals blocking structure, a plurality of chicane deflectors, a beam blanking deflector, and a beam blocking structure. The entrance is configured to accept a beam of charged particles propagating along an axis. The at least one neutrals blocking structure intersects the axis. The plurality of chicane deflectors includes a first chicane deflector, a second chicane deflector, a third chicane deflector, and a fourth chicane deflector sequentially arranged in series between the entrance and the exit and configured to deflect the beam along a path that bypasses the neutrals blocking structure and exits the chicane blanker assembly through the exit. In embodiments, the chicane blanker assembly includes a two neutrals blocking structures. In embodiments, the beam blocking structure is arranged between the third chicane deflector and the fourth chicane deflector.

To provide a scanning electron microscope having an electron spectroscopy system to attain high spatial resolution and a high secondary electron detection rate under the condition that energy of primary electrons is low, the scanning electron microscope includes: an objective lens 105; primary electron acceleration means 104 that accelerates primary electrons 102; primary electron deceleration means 109 that decelerates the primary electrons and irradiates them to a sample 106; a secondary electron deflector 103 that deflects secondary electrons 110 from the sample to the outside of an optical axis of the primary electrons; a spectroscope 111 that disperses secondary electrons; and a controller that controls application voltage to the objective lens, the primary electron acceleration means and the primary electron deceleration means so as to converge the secondary electrons to an entrance of the spectroscope.

There is provided a gas analyzer apparatus including: a sample chamber which is equipped with a dielectric wall structure and into which only sample gas to be measured is introduced; a plasma generation mechanism that generates plasma inside the sample chamber, which has been depressurized, using an electric field and/or a magnetic field applied through the dielectric wall structure; and an analyzer unit that analyzes the sample gas via the generated plasma. By doing so, it is possible to provide a gas analyzer apparatus capable of accurately analyzing sample gases, even those including corrosive gas, over a long period of time.

A device for implanting particles in a substrate comprises a particle source and a particle accelerator for generating an ion beam of positively charged ions. The device also comprises a substrate holder and an energy filter, which is arranged between the particle accelerator and the substrate holder. The energy filter is a microstructured membrane with a predefined structural profile for setting a dopant depth profile and/or a defect depth profile produced in the substrate by the implantation. The device also comprises at least one passive braking element for the ion beam. The at least one passive braking element is arranged between the particle accelerator and the substrate holder and is spaced apart from the energy filter.

The embodiments of the present disclosure provide various techniques for detecting backscatter charged particles, including accelerating charged particle sub-beams along sub-beam paths to a sample, repelling secondary charged particles from detector arrays, and providing devices and detectors which can switch between modes for primarily detecting charged particles and modes for primarily detecting secondary particles.