Hitachi High-Technologies has announced a number of improvements for the S-4700 field emission SEM, which give significantly better image quality, particularly at low accelerating voltages
The improvements to the S-4700 field emission scanning electron microscope include the introduction of a new snorkel objective lens and a new TTL (through-the-lens) detection system The new lens has been designed using the latest electron optical theory and allows a guaranteed resolution of just 2.1nm to be obtained at an accelerating voltage of 1kV.
Resolution of 1.5nm at 15kV and 12mm working distance (the X-ray analysis position) is retained with the new lens.
The new TTL detection system not only provides ultra-high-resolution performance using ExB energy filtered secondary electrons (SE), but also allows mixing of SE and BSE (backscattered electrons) using a retarding/accelerating plate.
This eliminates charging problems and allows imaging of atomic number contrast of any sample at low accelerating voltages.
Examples of the ultra-high resolution imaging are shown in a brand new brochure for the S-4700, together with the imaging capabilities provided by the new ExB filter electron detector.
