Charged particle beam apparatus

A charged particle beam apparatus comprising:

• a charged particle beam optical system that irradiates a sample mounted on a sample stage with a charged particle beam;
• a detector that detects a signal generated from the sample;
• a charged particle beam imaging device that acquires an observation image from the signal detected by the detector;
• an optical imaging device that captures an optical image of the sample;
• a stage that rotatably holds the sample stage;
• a stage control device that controls movement and a rotation operation of the stage;
• and
• an image composition unit that combines the plurality of optical images to generate a composite image, wherein
• the stage control device is configured, in order to control a degree of overlap in positions of the sample by the rotation operation, to move the stage so that a center of an imaging range of the optical imaging device is located at a position different from a rotation center of the stage and then, to rotate the stage,
• the optical imaging device acquires a plurality of optical images relating to different positions of the sample by the rotation operation, and
• the image composition unit combines the plurality of optical images obtained by the rotation operation based on the degree of overlap between images to generate the composite image.