A spatial image having 2D spatial information is obtained from a surface of a sample by an image creating method. The surface of the sample is milled to obtain an elemental image having material information from the milled surface. The spatial image and the elemental image are composed to form a 2D spatial/elemental image.

A method of evaluating a region of interest of a sample including: positioning the sample within in a vacuum chamber of an evaluation tool that includes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) column and a focused ion beam (FIB) column; acquiring a plurality of two-dimensional images of the region of interest by alternating a sequence of delayering the region of interest with a charged particle beam from the FIB column and imaging a surface of the region of interest with the SEM column; generating an initial three-dimensional data cube representing the region of interest by stacking the plurality of two-dimensional images on top of each other in an order in which they were acquired; identifying distortions within the initial three-dimensional data cube; and creating an updated three-dimensional data cube that includes corrections for the identified distortions.

In energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, an increase in the area of a detector causes a decrease in the peak/background ratio of a detected signal. In order to solve this problem, a sample holder has a main body part for holding a sample, and a sample retaining part detachably provided to the main body part; the sample retaining part being mounted on the main body part to secure the sample held by the main body part, and the sample retaining part having: a first hole for allowing a charged particle beam to pass therethrough; and a second hole for introducing, from among signals generated by the sample, only a specific signal into a detector. The sample holder is applicable to a charged particle beam device, for example.

A method of evaluating a region of interest of a sample including: positioning the sample within in a vacuum chamber of an evaluation tool that includes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) column and a focused ion beam (FIB) column; acquiring a plurality of two-dimensional images of the region of interest by alternating a sequence of delayering the region of interest with a charged particle beam from the FIB column and imaging a surface of the region of interest with the SEM column; generating an initial three-dimensional data cube representing the region of interest by stacking the plurality of two-dimensional images on top of each other in an order in which they were acquired; identifying distortions within the initial three-dimensional data cube; and creating an updated three-dimensional data cube that includes corrections for the identified distortions.