Scanning Electron Microscopy

 The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is the most widely used type of
electronmicroscope. It examines microscopic structure by scanning the surface of
materials with much higher resolution and much greater depth of field.

 An SEM image is formed by a focused electron beam that scans over the surface area
of a specimen; it is not formed by instantaneous illumination of a whole field as for a
TEM.

 Perhaps the most important feature of an SEM is the three-dimensional appearance of

its images because of its large depth of field.

 An SEM is relatively easily operated and maintained, compared with a TEM. In

addition, an SEM system enables us to obtain chemical information from a specimen
by using various techniques, including by equipping the X-ray energy-dispersive
spectrometer (EDS).

A secondary electron scanning electron micrograph of a ductile fracture surface in molybdenum

Instrumentation
 A SEM consists of an electron gun and a series of electromagnetic lenses and
apertures similar to TEM systems

 Electron gun for generating an electron-

thermionic or field emission type guns

o Acceleration voltage for generating an

electron beam -1–40 kV

 Electromagnetic lenses, including

condenser lenses and one objective lens

o The objective lens should be considered as the third condenser lens in the
SEM because it functions more like a condenser than an objective lens.

 Probe scanning is operated by a beam-deflection system incorporated within the

objective lens in an SEM to generate a rectangular raster on the specimen surface.

 The signal electrons emitted from the specimen are collected by a detector, amplified,
and used to reconstruct an image, according to a one-to-one correlation between
scanning points on the specimen and picture points on a screen of a cathode ray tube
(CRT) or liquid crystal display.
 The magnification of an SEM is determined by the ratio of the linear size of the
display screen to the linear size of the specimen area being scanned
 An SEM is able to provide image magnification from about 20× to greater than
100,000×
 Low-magnification imaging, an SEM is often more favorable than a light microscope
(LM) because of the large depth of field in SEM.
When high-energy electrons strike a specimen, they produce either elastic
or inelastic scattering.

 Elastic scattering produces the BSEs, which are incident electrons scattered by
atoms in the specimen. BSEs are typically deflected from the specimen at large
angles and with little energy loss; they typically retain 60–80% of the energy
of incident electrons.

 Inelastic scattering produces SEs, which are electrons ejected from atoms in the
specimen. In contrast, SEs are typically deflected at small angles and show much
lower energy compared with incident electrons. During inelastic scattering, an
incident electron transfers kinetic energy to an electron in a specimen atom. Any
electron in the specimen atom with sufficient kinetic energy will leave its orbital
to become a SE. The SE energy is usually in the range of about 3–5 eV.

 In terms of usefulness, SEs are the primary signals for achieving topographic
contrast, while BSEs are useful for formation of elemental composition contrast.
Detector
 A commonly used detector in an SEM is the Everhart–Thornley (E–T) detector.

 The SEs travel with large deflection angles toward the detector, while BSEs travel
directly toward the detector.

 The Faraday cage in the front of the detector is either positively or negatively
charged (250 or −50 V), depending on signal selection. When given a positive
charge, the detector attracts signal electrons, particularly, SEs. When given a
negative charge, it can screen out SEs with energy less than 50 eV. The key
element of the E–T detector is the scintillator, a disk of about 8–20 mm in
diameter. The scintillator converts signal electrons into photons by accelerating the
electrons with +12 kV and striking them onto a disk. The photons then travel through
a light guide and enter the photomultiplier tube for signal gain (up to ∼106×). The
photomultiplier output is further amplified for display on a display screen.

Images in the modern SEM are

recorded digitally. The intensity
of signal electrons for each pixel
is digitized and saved on
computer as a digital file for each
scan.
Probe Size and Current
The resolution of SEM imaging is determined by the cross-sectional diameter of
the scanning probe.
To obtain high resolution, we should know how to minimize probe size.
The probe diameter is approximately expressed as dp

ip is the probe current, β is the beam brightness, which is

controlled by the electron source, and αf is the convergence
angle of the probe, which is determined by the final
aperture diameter and the distance between aperture and
specimen surfaces (called the working distance)

Brightness of electron illumination or beam brightness (β) depends on the type of electron
gun used
The brightness is proportional to the acceleration voltage (Vo) of the gun
To obtain a minimal probe size, we should increase the brightness as well as the convergence
angle.

On the other hand, a large αf likely introduces other optical problems, particularly
spherical aberration. Thus, αf must be optimized, not simply increased. With an
optimized αf (and neglecting chromatic aberration), the minimum probe size is
approximated as dmin

K is a constant close to unity, Cs is the spherical aberration coefficient, and λ is the

wavelength of the electrons

The importance of electron gun type in determining SEM

resolution becomes obvious because there are significant
differences in their brightnesses.
The wavelength effects on probe size can be considered as the acceleration voltage effect,
because of the relationship between the voltage and the wavelength when different
acceleration voltages are used.

Even though reducing the probe size is necessary, the reduction of probe size
alone is not sufficient to obtain a high-resolution image in an SEM. For obtaining
a high-resolution image, there must be sufficient signal electrons generated by
the probe for each pixel of an image in order to distinguish the signals from the
background noise of electrons.
The signal electrons are proportional to the number of incident electrons in the probe. In other
words, the probe current must be larger than a minimum value so that microscopic features of
the specimen are visible in the SEM image.
The image signals from a specimen can be represented by a curved line varying with scan
position. The background noise is represented by a vertical fluctuation imposed on the curved
line. The Rose visibility criterion states that, to distinguish two objects from the
background noise, the change in signal (∆S) due to the object contrast must be five
times larger than the noise level (N)

The resolution of an SEM is determined by the probe size and the probe current. The
important points to note are that the minimum probe size and the maximum probe current
cannot be obtained simultaneously, and a compromise between the probe size and the probe
current must be made when we try to obtain a high-resolution image in SEM.
Contrast Formation

There are two types of contrast in SEM images:

-topographic and
-compositional.

The SEs are the primary source for surface topographic images
BSEs are mainly used for compositional images

Electron-Specimen interaction

Major signals produced by the interaction of

the primary electron beam with solid are:
-Backscattered electron
-Secondary electron
-Emission of Auger electrons
-Emission of characteristics x-ray
-Cathodomuninescence
-Thermal effects including thermal
wave signal
-Transmitted electrons
- Emission of photoelectrons
  Interaction between electrons
and specimen atoms
occurs within a certain volume
under the specimen surface

 The diffusion depth xD is defined as that depth

beyond which the electrons can be assumed to
be randomly scattered, so that an electron at
this depth is equally likely to be moving in any
direction in the sample.

 The penetration depth or range xR of the

incident electrons is defined as the depth at
which the electron energy is reduced to the
thermal energy kT.
 The zone is usually described as pear-shaped,
and its size increases with the energy of
incident electrons in the probe.

 SEs products of inelastic scattering, have an energy level of several electron volts. In the
interaction zone, SEs can escape only from a volume near the specimen surface with a
depth of 5–50 nm, even though they are generated in the whole pear-shaped zone.

 BSEs products of elastic scattering, have an energy level close to that of incident
electrons. Their high energy enables them to escape from a much deeper level in the
interaction zone, from depths of about 50–300 nm.

 The lateral spatial resolution of an SEM image is affected by the size of the volume from
where the signal electrons escape. We can expect, as shown in Figure that an image
formed by SEs should have a better spatial resolution than that formed by BSEs.