A device for locally manipulating a spatial phase distribution of a charged particle wave propagating along a beam axis comprises a support element having a target region for receiving the charged particle wave propagating along the beam axis and a plurality of phase adjusting elements, supported by the support element and located in the target region, for locally adjusting the phase of the charged particle wave when the charged particle wave impinges on the phase adjusting element. The device also comprises a plurality of control lines connected to the plurality of phase adjusting elements for individually controlling each phase adjusting element.

An electron microscope comprises: an electron microscope main body including a phase plate that imparts a phase change to an electron wave, a moving mechanism that moves the phase plate, and a detector that acquires an image formed by an electron beam transmitted through a sample; and a control unit that controls the electron microscope main body. The control unit performs a phase plate image acquisition process of acquiring a phase plate image which is an image of the phase plate; an unevenness determination process of determining whether or not the phase plate has unevenness based on the phase plate image; and a moving mechanism control process of moving the phase plate by controlling the moving mechanism when the control unit has determined that the unevenness is present.

Provided is a measurement method for measuring, in an electron microscope including a segmented detector having a detection plane segmented into a plurality of detection regions, a direction of each of the plurality of detection regions in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) image, the measurement method including: shifting an electron beam EB incident on a sample S under a state where the detection plane is conjugate to a plane shifted from a diffraction plane to shift the electron beam EB on the detection plane, and measuring a shift direction of the electron beam EB on the detection plane with the segmented detector; and obtaining the direction of each of the plurality of detection regions in the STEM image from the shift direction.

A phase contrast transmission electron microscope apparatus has a long-life phase modulator, enabling changes in quantity of phase modulation, barely absorbing the electron beams, and not being influenced by irradiation of the electron beams. An electron microscope comprises an electron gun, a first laser beam irradiating process, being positioned between the electron source and an object lens, for irradiating laser beams onto the electron beams radiated from the electron gun, a second laser beam irradiating process, being positioned on a focal plane behind the object lens, for focusing and irradiating the laser beams upon the focus of the electron beams penetrating through a specimen, and a screen or a 2D electron sensor for detecting a specimen image in the form of distribution of intensity of the electron beams by an optical system.

There is provided a phase-image processing apparatus and a phase-image processing method capable of highly accurately correcting a phase singularity included in a phase image. A phase-image processing apparatus that applies image processing to a phase image includes: a fringe pattern-creating unit that creates a plurality of fringe patterns based on a first interference fringe image corresponding to a first phase image including a phase singularity; a patch image-creating unit that creates a patch image based on the fringe pattern; an interference fringe image correcting unit that pastes the patch image to an area of the first interference fringe image corresponding to the phase singularity, corrects the first interference fringe image, and creates a second interference fringe image; and a phase image correcting unit that creates a second phase image from the second interference fringe image.

An object wave made of an electron beam influenced by a sample and reference beam made of an electron beam not influenced by the sample are made to interfere with each other where a magnetic field has been applied to the sample to create a first electron-beam hologram and create a first reconstructed phase image from the first electron-beam hologram. An object wave made of an electron beam influenced by the sample and a reference beam made of an electron beam not influenced by the sample are made to interfere where a magnetic field has not been applied to the sample to create a second electron-beam hologram and create a second reconstructed phase image from the second electron-beam hologram. Magnetic field information indicating the influence of the magnetic field on the sample is acquired on the basis of the difference between the first and second reconstructed phase images.

An electron microscope that measures electromagnetic field information separates an electric field distribution and a magnetic field distribution of a specimen with high precision to measure the electromagnetic field information. The electron microscope is configured with an electron source 1, an electron gun deflection coil 3, converging lenses 4a and 4b, an irradiation system astigmatic compensation coil 5, irradiation system deflection coils 6a and 6b, a magnetic field application coil 8, an objective lens 11, an imaging system astigmatic compensation coil 12, imaging system deflection coils 13a and 13b, a magnifying lens 17, an electron detector 18, a control analysis apparatus 20, and the like, and the control analysis apparatus 20 repeats a plurality of times measurement of first electromagnetic field information with an output signal from the electron detector by exercising first electron beam control after a first magnetic field is applied to the specimen 10 and then measurement of second electromagnetic field information similarly by exercising second electron beam control after a second magnetic field is applied to the specimen, and separates and measures an electric field distribution and a magnetic field distribution with high precision from the obtained first and second electromagnetic field information.

A lensless Fourier transform holography high accuracy reconstruction method using a charged particle beam apparatus which holds a sample on a diffraction surface of a diffraction grating provided on the downstream side of a traveling direction of the charged particle beam and which is formed of a material having permeability. The charged particle beam passed through the diffraction surface is image-formed, and the formed image is detected. An opening region of the diffraction grating is smaller than an irradiation region of the charged particle beam on the diffraction grating. Image data is obtained in a state where the irradiation region of the charged particle beam diffracted with the diffraction grating is within the irradiation region of the charged particle beam transmitted through the diffraction grating. Plural holograms obtained based on the image data are Fourier transformed and an intensity distribution image is displayed and stored.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a method for carrying out a time-resolved interferometric measurement comprising the steps of generating at least two coherent waves, overlapping said at least two coherent waves and producing an interference pattern, measuring the interference pattern for a given exposure time, thereby forming measured interference values, and analyzing the measured interference values and extracting amplitude and/or phase information from the measured interference values. In at least one time segment, hereinafter referred to as disturbed time segment, of the exposure time, the interference pattern is intentionally disturbed or destroyed such that the corresponding measured interference values describe a disturbed or destroyed interference pattern. In at least one other time segment, hereinafter referred to as undisturbed time segment, of the exposure time, the interference pattern is undisturbed or at least less disturbed compared to the disturbed time segment such that the corresponding measured interference values describe an undisturbed or less disturbed interference pattern. The measured interference values that were measured during the entire given exposure time, are filtered, wherein those interference values that were measured during the at least one disturbed time segment, are reduced, suppressed or discarded. The filtered interference values are analyzed and the amplitude and/or phase information is extracted from the filtered interference values.

The present invention refers to a device for generating charged particle beams with tunable orbital angular momentum. The device firstly includes one or more components for providing a charged particle beam. It is further characterized by an electrical arrangement for imparting a tunable orbital angular momentum to the charged particle beam during operation. The orbital angular momentum of the produced charged particle vortex beam is tunable by adjusting the amount of electrical current. The chirality of the produced charged particle vortex beam is switchable by reversing the direction of the electrical current. The generation of the charged particle vortex beam from the present invention does not depend on the energy of the charged particle beams. The generation of the charged particle vortex beams from the present invention is predictable and reproducible.