Shot noise-mitigated secondary electron imaging with ion count-aided microscopy.

ABSTRACT: Modern science is dependent on imaging on the nanoscale, often achieved through processes that detect secondary electrons created by a highly focused incident charged particle beam. Multiple types of measurement noise limit the ultimate trade-off between the image quality and the incident particle dose, which can preclude useful imaging of dose-sensitive samples. Existing methods to improve image quality do not fundamentally mitigate the noise sources. Furthermore, barriers to assigning a physically meaningful scale make the images qualitative. Here we introduce ion count-aided microscopy (ICAM), which is a quantitative imaging technique that uses statistically principled estimation of the secondary electron yield. With a readily implemented change in data collection, ICAM substantially re

SUBMITTER: Agarwal A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11261977 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature