title: Extraction of topographic and material contrasts on surfaces from SEM images obtained by energy filtering detection with low-energy primary electrons.
abstract: Secondary electron microscope (SEM) images have been obtained for practical materials using low primary electron energies and an in-lens type annular detector with changing negative bias voltage supplied to a grid placed in front of the detector. The kinetic-energy distribution of the detected electrons was evaluated by the gradient of the bias-energy dependence of the brightness of the images. This is divided into mainly two parts at about 500 V, high and low brightness in the low- and high-energy regions, respectively and shows difference among the surface regions having different composition and topography. The combination of the negative grid bias and the pixel-by-pixel image subtraction provides the band-pass filtered images and extracts the material and topographic information of the specimen surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Steel Research Laboratory, JFE Steel Corporation, 1 Kawasaki-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-0835, Japan. m-nagoshi@jfe-steel.co.jp
authors.forename: Masayasu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagoshi
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aoyama
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D055032:Electron Microscope Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D004583:Electrons