Systems and methods are provided for compensating dispersion of a beam separator in a single-beam or multi-beam apparatus. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a dispersion device comprising an electrostatic deflector and a magnetic deflector configured to induce a beam dispersion set to cancel the dispersion generated by the beam separator. The combination of the electrostatic deflector and the magnetic deflector can be used to keep the deflection angle due to the dispersion device unchanged when the induced beam dispersion is changed to compensate for a change in the dispersion generated by the beam separator. In some embodiments, the deflection angle due to the dispersion device can be controlled to be zero and there is no change in primary beam axis due to the dispersion device.

An improved apparatus and method for enhancing an image, and more particularly an apparatus and method for enhancing an image through cross-talk cancellation in a multiple charged-particle beam inspection are disclosed. An improved method for enhancing an image includes acquiring a first image signal of a plurality of image signals from a detector of a multi-beam inspection system. The first image signal corresponds to a detected signal from a first region of the detector on which electrons of a first secondary electron beam and of a second secondary electron beam are incident. The method includes reducing, from the first image signal, cross-talk contamination originating from the second secondary electron beam using a relationship between the first image signal and beam intensities associated with the first secondary electron beam and the second secondary electron beam. The method further includes generating a first image corresponding to first secondary electron beam after reduction.

Systems and methods for observing a sample in a multi-beam apparatus are disclosed. A charged particle optical system may include a deflector configured to form a virtual image of a charged particle source and a transfer lens configured to form a real image of the charged particle source on an image plane. The image plane may be formed at least near a beam separator that is configured to separate primary charged particles generated by the source and secondary charged particles generated by interaction of the primary charged particles with a sample. The image plane may be formed at a deflection plane of the beam separator. The multi-beam apparatus may include a charged-particle dispersion compensator to compensate dispersion of the beam separator. The image plane may be formed closer to the transfer lens than the beam separator, between the transfer lens and the charged-particle dispersion compensator.

A scanning electron microscope includes a spin detector configured to measure secondary electron spin polarization of secondary electrons emitted from the sample, and an analysis device configured to analyze secondary electron spin polarization data measured by the spin detector. The analysis device evaluates the strain in the sample by calculating a difference in the secondary electron spin polarization data of adjacent pixels.

An object of the invention is to accurately correct a deviation in position or angle between observation regions in an imaging device that acquires images of a plurality of sample sections. The imaging device according to the invention identifies a correspondence relationship between the observation regions between the sample sections using a feature point on a first image, corrects a deviation between the sample sections using a second image in a narrower range than the first image, and after reflecting a correction result, acquires a third image having a higher resolution than the second image (see FIG. 6B).

A multibeam scanning apparatus of an embodiment is a multibeam scanning apparatus configured to emit a plurality of electron beams to a plurality of scan regions set in a matrix on an object and obtain an observation image by detecting secondary beams, the apparatus including a control circuit. Each of the scan regions includes a plurality of separated scan regions obtained by separating the each of the scan regions in a direction orthogonal to a scanning direction of the electron beams. The control circuit controls the irradiation positions of the electron beams, in two of the scan regions adjacent to each other in the scanning direction of the electron beams, such that the separated scan regions to be scanned at a same time are displaced from each other by a predetermined distance in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction of the electron beams.

Systems and methods for observing a sample in a multi-beam apparatus are disclosed. A charged particle optical system may include a deflector configured to form a virtual image of a charged particle source and a transfer lens configured to form a real image of the charged particle source on an image plane. The image plane may be formed at least near a beam separator that is configured to separate primary charged particles generated by the source and secondary charged particles generated by interaction of the primary charged particles with a sample. The image plane may be formed at a deflection plane of the beam separator. The multi-beam apparatus may include a charged-particle dispersion compensator to compensate dispersion of the beam separator. The image plane may be formed closer to the transfer lens than the beam separator, between the transfer lens and the charged-particle dispersion compensator.

A scanning electron microscope includes an electron-optical system including an electron source and an objective lens, a stage on which a sample is placed, a secondary electron detector disposed adjacent to the electron source relative to the objective lens and configured to detect secondary electrons, a backscattered electron detector disposed between the objective lens and the stage and configured to detect backscattered electrons, a backscattered electron detection system controller configured to apply a voltage to the backscattered electron detector, and a device-control computer configured to detect a state of an electrical charge carried by the backscattered electron detector based on signal intensity at the secondary electron detector when the primary electrons are applied to the sample with a predetermined voltage applied to the backscattered electron detector.

There are provided: a method for image adjustment using a charged particle beam device, and a charged particle beam system, capable of appropriately adjusting a contrast and brightness as well as a focus for a measurement region present in a deep portion of a sample even when a depth of the measurement region is unknown. A method for image adjustment performed by a computer system controlling a charged particle beam device includes: by the computer system, specifying a measurement region from a captured image of a sample; performing centering processing based on the specified measurement region; extracting the measurement region in a field of view that has undergone the centering processing or the image that has undergone the centering processing; adjusting a contrast and brightness for the extracted measurement region; and adjusting a focus for the measurement region in which the contrast and brightness have been adjusted.

The present disclosure relates to transmission electron microscopy for evaluation of biological matter. According to an embodiment, the present disclosure further relates to an apparatus for determining the structure and/or elemental composition of a sample using 4D STEM, comprising a direct bombardment detector operating with global shutter readout, processing circuitry configured to acquire images of bright-field disks using either a contiguous array or non-contiguous array of detector pixel elements, correct distortions in the images, align each image of the images based on a centroid of the bright-field disk, calculate a radial profile of the images, normalize the radial profiles by a scaling factor, calculate the rotationally-averaged edge profile of the bright-field disk, and determine elemental composition within the specimen based on the characteristics of the edge profile of the bright-field disk corresponding to each specimen location.