scholarly journals Deep Learning for Super-Resolution in a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope

AI ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gao ◽  
Ma ◽  
Huang ◽  
Hua ◽  
Lan

A field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) is a complex scanning electron microscope with ultra-high-resolution image scanning, instant printing, and output storage capabilities. FESEMs have been widely used in fields such as materials science, biology, and medical science. However, owing to the balance between resolution and field of view (FOV), when locating a target using an FESEM, it is difficult to view specific details in an image with a large FOV and high resolution simultaneously. This paper presents a deep neural network to realize super-resolution of an FESEM image. This technology can effectively improve the resolution of the acquired image without changing the physical structure of the FESEM, thus resolving the constraint problem between the resolution and FOV. Experimental results show that the apply of a deep neural network only requires a single image acquired by an FESEM to be the input. A higher resolution image with a large FOV and excellent noise reduction is obtained within a short period of time. To verify the effect of the model numerically, we evaluated the image quality by using the peak signal-to-noise ratio value and structural similarity index value, which can reach 26.88 dB and 0.7740, respectively. We believe that this technology will improve the quality of FESEM imaging and be of significance in various application fields.

Author(s):  
S. Saito ◽  
H. Todokoro ◽  
S. Nomura ◽  
T. Komoda

Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) features extremely high resolution images, and offers many valuable information. But, for a specimen which gives low contrast images, lateral stripes appear in images. These stripes are resulted from signal fluctuations caused by probe current noises. In order to obtain good images without stripes, the fluctuations should be less than 1%, especially for low contrast images. For this purpose, the authors realized a noise compensator, and applied this to the FESEM.Fig. 1 shows an outline of FESEM equipped with a noise compensator. Two apertures are provided gust under the field emission gun.


Author(s):  
L. M. Welter

A scanning electron microscope using a field emission electron source and a single electromagnetic lens can produce a resolution of less than 180Å using an accelerating voltage of only 900v. High resolution, low voltage (0.1-2kV) scanning microscopy offers a number of advantages over the use of higher accelerating voltages. Specimen damage may be reduced because the power (P≃IV) which must be absorbed by the specimen for operation at a given probe current (I) is decreased in proportion to the reduction in accelerating voltage (V).


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Apkarian ◽  
Kevin L. Caran ◽  
Keith A. Robinson

An in-lens Schottky field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) combined with a transmission electron microscope (TEM)-type cold-stage and a chromium (Cr) sputter-coating system was developed to rapidly prepare and cryo-image biological specimens to attain accurate nanometer-level structural information. High-resolution topographic images at high primary magnification ([eg ]200,000 times) were digitally recorded with very short dwell times and without beam damage. Plunge freezing in ethane, followed by fracturing, Cr coating, and in-lens cryo-high-resolution scanning electron microscope (HRSEM) imaging directly revealed macromolecular features of yeast cells, platelets, and cell-free elastin analogues. The 'vitreous' nature of bulk water in its solid state appeared featureless in cryo-HRSEM images, suggesting that if ice crystals were present they would be [el ]2–3 nm (the approximate instrument resolution on cryo-specimens). Compared to technically difficult and indirect freeze-fracture TEM replicas, cryo-HRSEM samples are fully hydrated, unfixed, noncryoprotected specimens immersed in featureless ice. The time necessary to cryo-immobilize the specimen and record the image is <3 hr. The hexagonal arrays of intramembrane particles on the protoplasmic face of yeast cells and differences in surface morphology between thrombin-stimulated and quiescent platelets were assessed. A clear interface line between collapsed elastin fibril lacework and vitreous lakes was commonly observed. These experiments demonstrate the feasibility of this technique to rapidly evaluate macromolecular features in cryofixed cells and cell-free systems.


Author(s):  
David Joy ◽  
James Pawley

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) builds up an image by sampling contiguous sub-volumes near the surface of the specimen. A fine electron beam selectively excites each sub-volume and then the intensity of some resulting signal is measured. The spatial resolution of images made using such a process is limited by at least three factors. Two of these determine the size of the interaction volume: the size of the electron probe and the extent to which detectable signal is excited from locations remote from the beam impact point. A third limitation emerges from the fact that the probing beam is composed of a finite number of discrete particles and therefore that the accuracy with which any detectable signal can be measured is limited by Poisson statistics applied to this number (or to the number of events actually detected if this is smaller).


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