The invention relates to a method of examining a sample using a charged particle microscope, comprising the steps of providing a charged particle beam, as well as a sample, and scanning said charged particle beam over said sample. A first detector is used for detecting emissions of a first type from the sample in response to the beam scanned over the sample. Using spectral information of detected emissions of the first type, a plurality of mutually different phases are assigned to said sample. An image representation of said sample is provided, wherein said image representation contains different color hues. The color hues are selected from a pre-selected range of consecutive color hues in such a way that the selected color hues comprise mutually corresponding intervals within said pre-selected range of consecutive color hues.

Aspects of the present disclosure involve applying a Multi-Objective Autonomous Dynamic Sampling algorithm in an electron or other radiation/charged-particle microscope for the characterization of elemental, chemical, and crystallographic information with over an order of magnitude improvement in time and exposure.

A charged particle beam apparatus includes: an optical system that irradiates a sample mounted on a sample stage with a charged particle beam; at least one detector that detects a signal generated from the sample; an imaging device that acquires an observation image; a mechanism for changing observation positions in the sample which has at least one of a stage that moves the sample stage and a deflector that changes the charged particle beam's irradiation position; a display unit that displays an operation screen provided with an observation image displaying portion that displays the observation image and an observation position displaying portion that displays an observation position of the observation image; and a controller that controls display processing of the operation screen. The controller superimposes and displays on the observation position displaying portion a plurality of observation position images at different magnifications, based on the observation images' magnifications and coordinates.

The present invention relates to a handheld material analyser comprising an air-tight chamber having an analysis aperture; an electron beam generation system adapted to direct a beam of electrons through the analysis aperture; an Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy system having a detector located in the chamber; the chamber being adapted to operate at internal pressures between atmospheric pressure and a vacuum of the order of 1 Pa; and a gas inlet adapted to receive an inert gas for generating a plasma in the region of the photocathode. In this way, the plasma can clean the photocathode.

Provided are a radiation detector and a radiation detection apparatus in which the efficiency of detecting radiation is enhanced by increasing a portion capable of detecting radiation.

A radiation detector (1) includes a semiconductor part (12) having a plate-like shape, the semiconductor part being provided with a through hole (11) penetrating the semiconductor part (12), one surface of the semiconductor part (12) being an incident surface (121) for radiation. The semiconductor part (12) has a sensitive portion (18) capable of detecting incident radiation, the sensitive portion (18) including an inner edge (122) of the incident surface (121).

In some embodiments, a system for collecting information from a sample includes a sample stage and one or more signal detectors. The sample stage includes a heating element, and the heating element is capable of heating at least a portion of the sample stage to at least 100 Celsius. The one or more signal detectors has a detection material with a silicon nitride window positioned between the detection material and the sample stage.

An electron microscope includes: an electron detector which detects electrons emitted from a specimen upon irradiation of the specimen with an electron beam; an X-ray detector which detects X-rays emitted from the specimen upon irradiation of the specimen with the electron beam; and a processor which generates a three-dimensional element map based on output signals from the electron detector and the X-ray detector. The processor performs processing for generating a electron microscopic image based on the output signal from the electron detector, processing for generating a three-dimensional image of the specimen based on the electron microscopic image, processing for generating a two-dimensional element map based on the output signal from the X-ray detector, and processing for generating the three-dimensional element map by projecting the two-dimensional element map on the three-dimensional image.

A system for collecting information from a sample, the system includes an X-ray detector configured to mount to an electron microscope, the X-ray detector including a detection tip with a detection material positioned in the detection tip. The detection material includes a compound semiconductor material.

The present invention relates to a handheld material analyser comprising an air-tight chamber having an analysis aperture; an electron beam generation system adapted to direct a beam of electrons through the analysis aperture; an Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy system having a detector located in the chamber; the chamber being adapted to operate at internal pressures between atmospheric pressure and a vacuum of the order of 1 Pa; and a gas inlet adapted to receive an inert gas for generating a plasma in the region of the photocathode. In this way, the plasma can clean the photocathode.

The disclosure relates to a method of examining a sample using a charged particle microscope. The method comprises the steps of detecting using a first detector emissions of a first type from the sample in response to the beam scanned over the area of the sample. Then, using spectral information of detected emissions of the first type, at least a part of the scanned area of the sample is divided into multiple segments. According to the disclosure, emissions of the first type at different positions along the scan in at least one of said multiple segments may be combined to produce a combined spectrum of the sample in said one of said multiple segments. In an embodiment, a second detector is used to detect emissions of a second type, and this is used to divide the area of the sample into multiple regions. The first detector may be an EDS, and the second detector may be based on EM. This way, EDS data and EM data can be effectively combined for producing colored images.