TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental examination of the characteristics of bright-field scanning confocal electron microscopy images
AU - Hashimoto, Ayako
AU - Mitsuishi, Kazutaka
AU - Shimojo, Masayuki
AU - Zhu, Yufang
AU - Takeguchi, Masaki
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported by a grant-in-aid for Scientific Research (C) (21560036) and a grant-in-aid for Young Scientists (B) (20760027) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan, and also partially supported by Mitutoyo Association for Science and Technology, Japan.
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - We experimentally examined the characteristics of bright-field (BF) scanning confocal electron microscopy (SCEM) images by changing the observation conditions and comparing the images with those obtained by BF transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and BF scanning TEM (STEM) modes. The observation of 5-nm-diameter Au nanoparticles demonstrated that BF-SCEM produces object elongation of more than 2000 nm along the optical axis, as do BF-TEM and BF-STEM. We demonstrated the relationship between elongation length and geometric effects such as convergence and collection angles of a probe and the lateral size of an object; the relationship is consistent with previous theoretical prediction. Further, we observed interesting features that are seen only in the BF-SCEM images; the film contrast was strongly enhanced, compared with that of BF-STEM. In addition, a bright contrast appeared around the object position in the elongated images. Using this characteristic, we could determine the object position and structure.
AB - We experimentally examined the characteristics of bright-field (BF) scanning confocal electron microscopy (SCEM) images by changing the observation conditions and comparing the images with those obtained by BF transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and BF scanning TEM (STEM) modes. The observation of 5-nm-diameter Au nanoparticles demonstrated that BF-SCEM produces object elongation of more than 2000 nm along the optical axis, as do BF-TEM and BF-STEM. We demonstrated the relationship between elongation length and geometric effects such as convergence and collection angles of a probe and the lateral size of an object; the relationship is consistent with previous theoretical prediction. Further, we observed interesting features that are seen only in the BF-SCEM images; the film contrast was strongly enhanced, compared with that of BF-STEM. In addition, a bright contrast appeared around the object position in the elongated images. Using this characteristic, we could determine the object position and structure.
KW - bright-field imaging
KW - confocal imaging
KW - depth sectioning
KW - scanning confocal electron microscopy
KW - stage-scanning system
KW - three-dimensional imaging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79958800842&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79958800842&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/jmicro/dfr013
DO - 10.1093/jmicro/dfr013
M3 - Article
C2 - 21486860
AN - SCOPUS:79958800842
SN - 2050-5698
VL - 60
SP - 227
EP - 234
JO - Microscopy (Oxford, England)
JF - Microscopy (Oxford, England)
IS - 3
ER -