Fei Comapny

U.S. Philips Corporation

Philips Electron Optics B.v.

Peter Christiaan Tiemeijer

Alexander Henstra

Sorin Lazar

Ali Mohammadi-Gheidari

Maarten Bischoff

Bert Henning Freitag

Stan Johan Pieter Konings

Bart Buijsse

Tjerk G Spanjer

Gerard Nicolaas Anne Van Veen

Hendrik Nicolaas Slingerland

Rudolf Geurink

Yuchen Deng

Uwe Luecken

Alan Frank De Jong

Erwin Fernand De Jong

Jamie McCormack

Pieter Kruit

Frank Jeroen Pieter Schuurmans

Maarten Kuijper

Pavel Potocek

Pleun Dona

Bart Jozef Janssen

Thomas Gary Miller

Gregory A Schwind

Remco Schoenmakers

Faysal Boughorbel

Kun Liu

Brian Routh, Jr

Jan Martijn Krans

Holger Kohr

Erik Rene Kieft

Ivan Lazic

Luigi Mele

Martinus Petrus Maria Bierhoff

Gerbert Jeroen Van De Water

Marcel Niestadt

David Foord

Gijs Van Duinen

Ivan Lazić

Raymond Wagner

Jaydeep Sanjay Belapure

Abhay Kotecha

Arthur Reinout Hartong

Stephan Kujawa

Franciscus Martinus Henricus Maria Van Laarhoven

J Chmelik

Tomas Radlicka

Evgeniia Pechnikova

Hans Raaijmakers

Thomas Miller

Erwin De Jong

Frank Van Laarhoven

Frank Schuurmans

Sander Henstra

The invention relates to a transmission charged particle microscope comprising a charged particle beam source for emitting a charged particle beam, a sample holder for holding a sample, an illuminator for directing the charged particle beam emitted from the charged particle beam source onto the sample, and a control unit for controlling operations of the transmission charged particle microscope. As defined herein, the transmission charged particle microscope is arranged for operating in at least two modes that substantially yield a first magnification whilst keeping said diffraction pattern substantially in focus. Said at least two modes comprise a first mode having first settings of a final projector lens of a projecting system; and a second mode having second settings of said final projector lens.

Transmission charged particle microscope with an electron energy loss spectroscopy detector

A method for reducing throughput time in a sample image acquisition session in transmission electron microscopy comprises: providing an electron microscope comprising a sample component, a beam generator, an adjusting component, and a filtering component; securing a sample by using the sample component; generating an electron beam by using the beam generator; generating an image beam by directing the beam to the sample component; adjusting at least one of the beam and the image beam by using the adjusting component to obtain at least one modified image beam, wherein the adjusting is performed in such a way, that off-axial aberration of the modified image beam is minimized; and filtering the modified image beam via the filtering component to reduce resolution-deteriorating effect of chromatic aberration on the modified image beam resulting from the adjusting of the at least one of the beam and the image beam.

Method, device and system for reducing off-axial aberration in electron microscopy

An energy spectrometer with dynamic focus for a transmission electron microscope (TEM) is disclosed herein. An example energy spectrometer and TEM at least includes a charged particle column including a projection system arranged after a sample plane, the projection system is operated in a first configuration; an energy spectrometer coupled to the charged particle column to acquire one or more energy loss spectra. The energy spectrometer including a dispersive element, a bias tube, optics for magnifying the energy loss spectrum and for correcting aberrations, and a detector arranged conjugate to a spectrum plane of the energy spectrometer, wherein the energy spectrometer further includes an optical element electrically biased to refocus at least a portion of a spectrum onto the detector, and wherein the value of the electrical bias is at least partially based on the first configuration of the charged particle column.

Energy spectrometer with dynamic focus

Molecular structure of a crystal may be solved based on at least two diffraction tilt series acquired from a sample. The two diffraction tilt series include multiple diffraction patterns of at least one crystal of the sample acquired at different electron doses. In some examples, the two diffraction tilt series are acquired at different magnifications.

Method and system to determine crystal structure

The disclosure relates to a method of determining an energy width of a charged particle beam, comprising the steps of providing a charged particle beam, directing said beam towards a specimen, and forming an energy-dispersed beam from a flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen. As defined herein, the method comprises the steps of providing a slit element in a slit plane, and using said slit element for blocking a part of said energy-dispersed beam, as well as the step of modifying said energy-dispersed beam at the location of said slit plane in such a way that said energy dispersed beam is partially blocked at said slit element. The unblocked part of said energy-dispersed beam is imaged and an intensity gradient of said imaged energy-dispersed beam is determined, with which the energy width of the charged particle beam can be determined.

Method of determining an energy width of a charged particle beam

A method for electron microscopy comprises: adjusting at least one of an electron beam and an image beam in such a way that off-axial aberrations inflicted on at least one of the electron beam and the image beam are minimized, the adjusting performed by using a beam adjusting component to obtain at least one modified image beam, wherein the adjusting comprises applying both shifting and tilting to at least one of the electron beam and the image beam and wherein the amount of tilting of at least one of the electron beam and the image beam depends on the amount of shifting of at least one of the electron beam and the image beam respectively and wherein the amount of tilting is computed based on at least one of coma and astigmatism introduced as a consequence of the shift.

The disclosure relates to a method of imaging a specimen using a transmission charged particle microscope, said method comprising providing a specimen, and providing a charged particle beam and directing said charged particle beam onto said specimen for generating a flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen. The method comprises the step of generating and recording a first energy filtered flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen, wherein said first energy filtered flux of charged particles substantially consists of non-scattered and elastically scattered charged particles. The method as disclosed herein comprises the further step of generating and recording a second energy filtered flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen, wherein said second energy filtered flux of charged particles substantially consists of inelastically scattered charged particles. Said first and second recorded energy filtered flux are then used for imaging said specimen with increased contrast.

Method of imaging a specimen using a transmission charged particle microscope

An electron optical module for providing an off-axial electron beam with a tunable coma, according to the present disclosure includes a structure positioned downstream of an electron source and an electron lens assembly positioned between the structure and the electron source. The structure generates a decelerating electric field, and is positioned to prevent the passage of electrons along the optical axis of the electron lens assembly. The electron optical module further includes a micro-lens that is not positioned on the optical axis of the electron lens assembly and is configured to apply a lensing effect to an off-axial election beam. Aberrations applied to the off-axial electron beam by the micro-lens and the electron lens assembly combine so that a coma of the off-axial beam has a desired value in a downstream plane.

Electron optical module for providing an off-axial electron beam with a tunable coma

Systems and methods for reducing the buildup of charge during the investigation of samples using charged particle beams, according to the present disclosure include irradiating a first portion of a sample during a first time period, wherein the irradiating the first portion of the sample causes a gradual accumulation of net charge in the first portion of the sample, generating imaging data based on emissions resultant from irradiating the first portion of the sample, and then irradiating a second portion of a sample holder for a second time period. The methods may further includes iteratively repeating the irradiation of the first portion and the second portion during imaging of the sample region. When more than one region of interest on the sample is to be investigated, the method may also include continuing to image additional portions of the sample by iteratively irradiating a region of interest on the sample and a corresponding portion of the sample holder.

System and method for reducing the charging effect in a transmission electron microscope system

The invention relates to a method for electron microscopy. The method comprises providing an electron microscope, generating an electron beam and an image beam, adjusting one of the beam and of the beam and the image beam to reduce off-axial aberrations and correcting a diffraction pattern of the resulting modified beam. The invention also relates to a method for reducing throughput time in a sample image acquisition session in transmission electron microscopy. The method comprises providing an electron microscope, generating a beam and an image beam, adjusting one of the two to reduce off-axial aberrations and filtering the resulting modified image beam. The invention further relates to an electron microscope and to a non-transient computer-readable medium with a computer program for carrying out the methods.

An adjustable magnetic field free objective lens for a charged particle microscope is disclosed herein. An example charged particle microscope at least includes first and second optical elements arranged on opposing sides of a sample plane, a third optical element arranged around the sample plane, and a controller coupled to control the first, second and third optical elements. The controller coupled to excite the first and second optical elements to generate first and second magnetic lenses, the first and second magnetic lenses formed on opposing sides of the sample plane and oriented in the same direction, and excite the third optical element to generate a third magnetic lens at the sample plane that is oriented in an opposite direction, where a ratio of the excitation of the third optical element to the excitation of the first and second optical elements adjusts a magnetic field at the sample plane.

Magnetic field free sample plane for charged particle microscope

Correctors for correcting axial aberrations of a particle-optical lens in a charged particle microscope system, according to the present disclosure include a first primary multipole that generates a first primary multipole field when a first excitation is applied to the first primary multipole, and a second primary multipole that generates a second primary multipole field when a second excitation is applied to the second primary multipole. The first primary multipole is not imaged onto the second primary multipole such that a combination fourth-order aberration is created. The correctors further include a secondary multipole for correcting the fourth-order aberration and the sixth-order aberration. Such correctors may further include a tertiary multipole for correcting an eighth-order aberration.

Sixth-order and above corrected STEM multipole correctors

A transmission charged particle microscope includes a specimen holder for holding a specimen; a source for producing a charged particle beam; an illuminator for directing said beam to irradiate the specimen, wherein the illuminator comprising a monochromator and a condenser lens assembly; and an imaging system for receiving a flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen. The microscope is controlled to produce a first energy spread of an emerging beam exiting said aperture by selecting at least one of parameters (a) an excitation of a first lens of said condenser lens assembly and (b) a width of a condenser aperture downstream of said first lens.

Transmission charged particle microscope with adjustable beam energy spread

A multi-electron beam imaging apparatus is disclosed herein. An example apparatus at least includes an electron source for producing a precursor electron beam, an aperture plate comprising an array of apertures for producing an array of electron beams from said precursor electron beam, an electron beam column for directing said array of electron beams onto a specimen, where the electron beam column is configured to have a length less than 300 mm, and where the electron beam column comprises a single individual beam crossover plane in which each of said electron beams forms an intermediate image of said electron source, and a single common beam crossover plane in which the electron beams in the array cross each other.

Multi-electron-beam imaging apparatus with improved performance

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Peter Christiaan Tiemeijer