Autoadjusting charged-particle probe-forming apparatus

A method for autoadjusting a charged-particle apparatus, said method comprising:

• emitting a beam of charged particles from a charged particle source;
• transferring said beam by charged particle lenses;
• forming a narrow probe of charged particles in a vicinity of a transmission sample;
• scanning said narrow probe over an area of said sample;
• detecting a plurality of scanned images with a plurality of bright-field detectors, each detector detecting an image corresponding to a different average detection angle;
• quantifying a characteristic property of said plurality of scanned images;
• deriving an aberration coefficient or aberration coefficients of said charged-particle apparatus from said characteristic property,
• whereby information about an optical state of said charged-particle apparatus is determined quantitatively.

A method for autoadjusting a charged-particle apparatus, said method comprising:

• emitting a beam of charged particles from a charged particle source;
• transferring said beam by charged particle lenses;
• forming a narrow probe of charged particles in a vicinity of a sample;
• scanning said narrow probe over an area of said sample;
• recording a plurality of scanned images of said sample with different said images corresponding to different average angles of illumination of said sample;
• quantifying a characteristic property of said scanned images;
• deriving an aberration coefficient or aberration coefficients of said charged-particle apparatus from said characteristic property,
• whereby information about an optical state of said charged-particle apparatus is derived automatically.