McGill University, Mining and Materials Engineering, Montréal, Quebec H3A 2B2, Canada.
Microsc Microanal. 2012 Jun;18(3):628-37. doi: 10.1017/S1431927612000207. Epub 2012 May 9.
The relation between probe size and spatial resolution of backscattered electron (BSE) images was studied. In addition, the effect of the accelerating voltage, the current intensity and the sample geometry and composition were analyzed. An image synthesis method was developed to generate the images from backscattered electron coefficients obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. Spatial resolutions of simulated images were determined with the SMART-J method, which is based on the Fourier transform of the image. The resolution can be improved by either increasing the signal or decreasing the noise of the backscattered electron image. The analyses demonstrate that using a probe size smaller than the size of the observed object (sample features) does not improve the spatial resolution. For a probe size larger than the feature size, the spatial resolution is proportional to the probe size.
研究了背散射电子（BSE）图像的探针尺寸与空间分辨率之间的关系。此外，还分析了加速电压、电流强度以及样品几何形状和成分的影响。开发了一种图像合成方法，从蒙特卡罗模拟获得的背散射电子系数生成图像。使用 SMART-J 方法确定模拟图像的空间分辨率，该方法基于图像的傅里叶变换。通过增加背散射电子图像的信号或降低噪声，可以提高分辨率。分析表明，使用小于观察对象（样品特征）尺寸的探针尺寸并不能提高空间分辨率。对于大于特征尺寸的探针尺寸，空间分辨率与探针尺寸成正比。
