Charging compensation of alumina samples by using an oxygen microinjector in the environmental scanning electron microscope

Abstract

A gas microinjector system was set up in an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) to create an oxygen atmosphere around the alumina samples for the charging compensation under a pressure between 2 × 10-5 Pa ∼ 2 × 10-2 Pa. At low pressures, the skirt effect of the electron scattering can be degraded, which results in improvement of the imaging contrast and increase of the signal/noise ratio. The sample current (I SC) and the Duane-Hunt limit were measured to evaluate the charging effect. © FAMS, Inc.