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US 2026/0279719 A1Published application
Method for finding optimal image contrast when using a laser phase plate
AssigneeFEI Company
InventorsWim Hagen, Andreas Voigt, Bart Buijsse, Veli Altin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Phase contrast imaging in charged particle beam (CPB) systems is controlled by adjusting an undeviated component of a CPB to be at a predetermined location in a diffraction plane in which a phase plate such as a laser phase plate is situated. By scanning the undeviated CPB component in the diffraction plane and assessing image contrast or image spectra, alignment corresponding to the phase at the predetermined phase location can be confirmed and/or offsets corrected.
Claims23
A method, comprising:
- establishing a CPB axis with respect to a phase plate to be at a selected offset from an axis of the phase plate;
- obtaining an image of a specimen based on a CPB passing the phase plate with the CPB axis at the selected offset;
- and
- based on a contrast of the image of the specimen or at least a portion of a spectrum of the image, determining an offset correction from the selected offset.
1 more element
A charged-particle beam (CPB) imaging system, comprising:
- a CPB source operable to direct a CPB to a specimen;
- a phase plate situated to receive the CPB from the specimen;
- a detection system that receives the CPB from the phase plate and produces at least one specimen image based on a phase applied by the phase plate;
- and
- a controller operable to direct a selected deviated CPB component produced by the specimen from the CPB to a plurality of locations at the phase plate and based on the at least one specimen image, establish a phase provided by the phase plate to the deviated CPB component.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.