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Reduce Charging Effects on Beam Sensitive Material by Optimized Scanning Routines in SEM

Today’s electron microscopes enable sample imaging and inspection with low electron energies at a high level of resolution and scan speed with great stability and reliability. This enables the examination of beam sensitive samples like biological or insulating specimens. Charging effects on specimens with poor conductivity can obscure images by distortion or artificial contrast. In case of BSE imaging, this can lead to misinterpretations in compositional examinations. In this paper, we show how high scan speeds and large area imaging with high pixel count can help to reduce these charging effects. The standard procedure to reduce charging is to lower the beam energy or current and to use, if possible, low vacuum modes or discharging devices. However, next to these, the method of scanning the sample can help to further reduce charging and sample damage. This method can be divided into two stages. First, we show how faster scan speeds reduce charging, and second, how larger scan areas with high pixel counts can help to further improve results.