JPH01239743A - Image recording and reading method for electron microscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To carry out the visual field seeking and the focusing satisfactorily by reading and reproducing a monitor image only one time substantially, by reproducing plural electron microscope images for monitoring, selecting the best one therefrom, setting the operational condition when the selected microscope image is recorded, and recording the final output image. CONSTITUTION:The visual field scope and the focus condition of an expanded and scattered image 8b reproduced 12 in a monitor image reproduction device 40 are observed, and the image to provide the most favorable condition of them is selected. By inputting the number of the selected monitor image to a photograph condition controller 50, the lens condition and the sample position responding to the image number can be read from a lens condition memory 54 and a sample position memory 56 respectively, and the read lens condition and the sample position are set in the electron microscope 1. As a result, the reproduced electron microscope image is made into an image of a good visual field scope and a good focus condition at the level same as the selected monitor image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method for recording and reading electron microscope images, and in particular, it relates to a method for recording and reading electron microscope images. The present invention relates to a record reading method in which signals are read and electron microscope images are reproduced at high speed.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, an electron microscope has been known that obtains an enlarged image of a sample by refracting an electron beam transmitted through a sample using an electric field or a magnetic field. As is well known, in this electron microscope, an electron beam transmitted through the sample forms a diffraction pattern of the sample on the back focal plane of the objective lens, and the diffraction rays interfere again to form an enlarged image of the sample. It has become.

Therefore, if the enlarged image is projected by the projection lens, an enlarged image (scattered image) of the sample will be observed, and if the back focal plane is projected, the diffraction pattern of the enlarged sample will be observed. If an intermediate lens is placed between the objective lens and the projection lens, the focal length of this intermediate lens can be adjusted.
Expanded e! (scattered images) or diffraction patterns are optionally obtained.

In order to observe the enlarged image or diffraction pattern (hereinafter collectively referred to as a transmission electron beam image) formed as described above, conventionally, a photographic film is placed on the imaging surface of the projection lens and the transmission electron beam image is observed. A line image was exposed, or an image intensifier was installed to amplify and project the transmitted electron beam image. However, photographic film has the disadvantage that it has low sensitivity to electron beams and requires troublesome image processing.On the other hand, when using an image intensifier, the problem is that the sharpness of the image is low and the image is easily distorted. There is.

Furthermore, for the above-mentioned transmission electron beam images, gradation processing, frequency emphasis processing, density processing,
Image processing such as subtraction processing and addition processing, three-dimensional image reconstruction using Fourier analysis, image analysis for image binarization and particle size measurement, and diffraction pattern processing (crystal information analysis, (elucidation of lattice constants, dislocations, lattice defects, etc.), but conventionally in such cases, the microscopic image obtained by developing photographic film was read with a microphotometer and converted into electrical signals. The conventional method involves the complicated work of converting the electrical signal, for example, A/D converting the electrical signal, and then processing it with a computer.

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present applicant has developed a technology that allows the electrical signals carrying the microscopic images to be directly obtained, so that electron microscopic images can be recorded and reproduced with high sensitivity and high image quality, and various processing can be easily performed. We proposed a new method for recording and reproducing electron microscope images (
JP-A-61-51738, JP-A No. 61-93539, etc.)
. This electron microscope image recording and reproducing method basically stores and records the electron beam that has passed through the sample in a vacuum state on a two-dimensional sensor that stores electron beam energy, and then irradiates or heats the two-dimensional sensor with light. The accumulated energy is emitted as light, the emitted light is detected photoelectrically to obtain an image signal, and this image signal is used to reproduce the transmitted electron beam image of the sample.

The two-dimensional sensor described above temporarily accumulates at least a portion of the energy when exposed to an electron beam, and when external stimulation is applied later, at least a portion of the accumulated energy is transferred to light, electricity, or sound. It consists of a material that has the ability to emit in a detectable form such as Specifically, as this two-dimensional sensor, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-12429,
The stimulable phosphor sheets disclosed in Japanese Publications No. 55-116340, No. 55-163472, No. 56-11395, No. 56-104645, etc. can be particularly preferably used. In other words, when a certain kind of phosphor is irradiated with radiation such as an electron beam, part of the energy of this radiation is accumulated in the phosphor, and when the phosphor is subsequently irradiated with excitation light such as visible light, the energy of this radiation is accumulated. Depending on the energy, the phosphor fluoresces (
(photostimulated luminescence). A phosphor that exhibits these properties is called a stimulable phosphor, and a stimulable phosphor sheet is a sheet-like recording material made of the above-mentioned stimulable phosphor. It consists of stacked stimulable phosphor layers. A stimulable phosphor layer is formed by dispersing a stimulable phosphor in a suitable binder, but if this stimulable phosphor layer is self-supporting, it can become a stimulable phosphor sheet by itself. Vine. Incidentally, an example of the stimulable phosphor for forming this stimulable phosphor sheet is disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 61-9.
It is described in detail in Publication No. 3539.

In addition, as the above-mentioned two-dimensional sensor, for example,
Thermophosphor sheets described in JP-A No. 47719, JP-A No. 55-47720, etc. can also be used. This thermophosphor sheet is a sheet-like recording material made of a phosphor (thermophosphor) that emits accumulated radiation energy as thermofluorescence mainly due to the action of heat.

By the way, when reproducing a 71-electron microscope image using the above-mentioned recording and reproducing method, the field search operation and bin I/alignment operation are conventionally carried out using fluorescent light on the imaging surface of the electron microscope. If a screen is arranged and the image projected on the fluorescent screen is used during the measurement, the amount of electron beam exposure must be increased, which causes the sample to be easily damaged. In particular, when the electron beam exposure amount is extremely low in order to take advantage of the possibility of high-sensitivity recording, a clear image cannot be projected on the screen because the electron beam type irradiated to the fluorescent screen is low. This problem also occurs.

In view of the above circumstances, the present applicant has proposed an electron microscope image recording and reading method that does not damage the sample and allows for simple and quick field of view search.

This method does not use the above-mentioned fluorescent screen, but instead accumulates and records electron microscope images (monitor images) for field finding and/or focusing on a two-dimensional sensor, and uses these monitor images for sample observation. It is reproduced in the same manner as when an electron microscope image is read and reproduced, and the field of view range and focus state are determined from the reproduced monitor image (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-240546).

According to the above method, a clear monitor image can be obtained even if the electron beam exposure amount is low, and by observing this monitor image, the field of view can be searched and focused efficiently and correctly.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above method, the monitor image is recorded, read and reproduced many times while changing the viewing range and focus state little by little until a monitor image with an appropriate viewing range and focus state is obtained. need to be repeated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electron microscope image recording/reading method that can satisfactorily perform visual field searching and focusing by reading and reproducing a monitor image essentially only once. be.

(Means and effects for solving the problem) The electron microscope image recording and reading method of the present invention accumulates and records an electron beam that has passed through a sample in a two-dimensional sensor as described above in a vacuum state, and then is irradiated with light or heated to emit the accumulated energy as light, and this emitted light is photoelectrically detected to obtain an image signal for outputting the electron microscope image carried by the electron beam as a developable image. In the electron microscope image recording/reading method described above, prior to the electron beam accumulation recording operation, the electron beam that has passed through the sample is measured in advance using a single two-dimensional sensor for monitoring with different viewing ranges and/or focus states of the sample. By irradiating different parts of the sensor, multiple electron microscope images were accumulated and recorded in the sensor, and the operating conditions of the electron microscope to obtain the field of view range and/or focus state at this time were correlated with each electron microscope image. The above is stored in the storage means, the two-dimensional monitor sensor is irradiated with light or heated, and the emitted light at that time is photoelectrically detected to obtain a monitor image signal, and the monitor image signal is Based on this, a plurality of electron microscope images accumulated and recorded in the two-dimensional monitor sensor are reproduced, and these reproduced electron microscope images are observed to obtain an electron microscope image with a desired viewing range and/or focus state. 2. Selecting the selected electron microscope image, reading out the operating conditions corresponding to the selected electron microscope image from the storage means, setting these conditions in the electron microscope, and outputting a final visible image.
The feature is that the electron beam is accumulated and recorded in the dimensional sensor.

Note that the two-dimensional sensor for monitoring and the two-dimensional sensor used for outputting the final visible image may be separate from each other, or may be used in common.

(Embodiments) Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an electron microscope image recording/reading apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention. Mirror body 1 of electron microscope 1
a includes an electron gun 3 that emits an electron beam 2 with a −-like velocity, at least one focusing lens 4 consisting of a magnetic lens, an electrostatic lens, etc. that focuses the electron beam 2 onto a sample surface, and a sample stage 5;
It comprises an objective lens 6 similar to the focusing lens 4, an intermediate lens 7', and a projection lens 7. The electron beam 2 transmitted through the sample 8 placed on the sample stage 5 is refracted by the objective lens 6 to form an enlarged scattered image 8a of the sample 8. This enlarged scattered image 8a is projected onto the image plane 9 by the projection lens 7.
The image is projected onto (8b in the figure).

An electron microscope image recording/reading device IO is arranged below the mirror body 1a. This electron microscope image recording/reading device IO includes a first two-dimensional sensor (hereinafter referred to as a stimulable phosphor sheet 11) made of a stimulable phosphor fixed to the imaging surface 9 in the mirror body la; A first excitation means consisting of an excitation light source 12 and a light scanning system 13 is arranged so as to face the first stimulable phosphor sheet 11 through a light-transmitting window 14 provided on the peripheral wall of the mirror body 1a. A first photomultiplier (photomultiplier tube) 15 arranged therein and a first erasing light source 1B are set to H.

The stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is formed by layering the stimulable phosphor described above on a transparent support. Further, the excitation light source 12 includes, for example, a He-Ne laser, a semiconductor laser, etc., and the optical scanning system 13 includes first and second optical deflectors 13a and 13b, and a fixed mirror 13c.

Known optical deflectors such as a galvanometer mirror, a polygon mirror, a hologram scanner, and an AOD can be used as the first and second optical deflectors 13a and 13b, respectively. The excitation light beam 12a emitted from the excitation light source 12 is deflected by the first optical deflector 13a, and is deflected by the second optical deflector 13a.
A direction perpendicular to the direction of the above-mentioned deflection (
The beam is deflected in the direction of arrow A in the figure), passes through a transparent window 21 in which lead glass or the like is fitted, and enters the mirror body la.
The light is reflected by the fixed mirror 13c and enters the stimulable phosphor sheet 11. In this way, the stimulable phosphor sheet is scanned in both X-7 directions by the light beam. Although not shown, the excitation light beam 12a emitted from the excitation light 11iX12 is passed through a filter that cuts the wavelength region of stimulated luminescence light (described in detail later) emitted by the stimulable phosphor sheet H1, and then passed through a beam expander. It is preferable that the beam diameter is adjusted by the following, and then deflected by the optical deflectors 13a and 13b, and then passed through an fθ lens to make the beam diameter uniform and incident on the stimulable phosphor sheet.

Further, the erasing light source 1G generates light included in the excitation wavelength range of the stimulable phosphor sheet 11.

A mirror 17 is disposed between the second optical deflector 13b and the fixed mirror 13c, and can be positioned in the optical path of the excitation light beam 12a or out of the optical path. The erasing light lea emitted by the erasing light source 16 is focused by the lens 18, and if the mirror 17 is set in the optical path of the excitation light beam 12a, it is reflected by the mirror 17 and the fixed mirror 13c, and is accumulated. The entire surface of the fluorescent phosphor sheet 11 is irradiated. Further, between the objective lens 7 and the stimulable phosphor sheet 11, the mirror body 1a is provided with a hanging shutter 19 for blocking the electron beam 2, and the stimulable phosphor sheet Ml and the first photomultiplier=15 An optical shutter 24 is provided between the two.

The light-transmitting window 14 transmits only the stimulated luminescence light emitted by the stimulable phosphor sheet 11, and the excitation light beam 1
A glass 20 is fitted with an optical filter to remove 2a. In addition, the interior of the mirror body 1a, including the part where the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is placed, is kept in a vacuum state by known means such as a vacuum pump during operation of the electron microscope, as in a normal electron microscope. will be maintained.

The electron microscope image recording/reading apparatus 10 further includes a sheet conveyance table 30, sheet conveyance rollers 31 arranged along the sheet conveyance table 30, and a second An erasing light source 32, a light condenser 33, a second photomultiplier 34 optically connected to the condenser 33, and a stimulable phosphor for monitoring placed on the sheet conveyance table 30. It has a sheet 35.

The monitor stimulable phosphor sheet 35 is conveyed on the sheet conveying table 30 in the left-right direction in the figure by rotating the sheet conveying roller 3 in the normal and reverse directions. The sheet conveying table 30 is two-dimensionally moved by the table driving means 29 in the left-right direction in FIG. 1 and in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper. Further, a second excitation means is provided which includes excitation light 1TIX3G similar to the excitation light source 12 and an optical deflector 37 similar to the optical deflector 13a or 13b. Above excitation light source 3G
The excitation light beam 38a emitted from the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 is deflected by an optical deflector 37, transmitted through a light-transmitting window 38, and scans the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 in a direction perpendicular to its transport direction. Further, the sheet conveying table 30 is provided with an opening 30a in a portion facing the fixed first stimulable phosphor sheet ll, and a second stimulable phosphor sheet 35 is inserted from above the opening 30a to the left in the figure. If the electron beam 2 is exited in the opposite direction, the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 can be irradiated with the electron beam 2.

Next, recording and reading of electron microscope images by the electron microscope image recording and reading apparatus 10 having the above configuration will be explained in detail. First, the second stimulable phosphor sheet 35 is inserted into the aperture 3 in order to accumulate and record the monitor image for searching the field of view and adjusting the focus.
It is placed at a position above 0a.

When the aforementioned shutter 19 is opened, the energy of the electron beam 2 carrying the enlarged scattered image 8b of the sample 8 is stored in the second stimulable phosphor sheet 35. At this time, a plurality of desired lens conditions (conditions for changing the focal length) and a plurality of desired sample positions (positions relative to the electron beam 2) are input to the imaging condition controller 50, and the controller 50 controls the lens A signal SIO indicating the condition is sent to the lens condition controller 51, and a signal Sll indicating the sample position is sent to the position controller 52. The lens condition controller 51 sets the lens conditions indicated by the signal SIO for the lenses 6.7° and 7. Note that the lens conditions in this case are set so that the electron beam 2 is irradiated onto a portion (approximately 1712 portions in this example) of the monitor stimulable phosphor sheet 35, as shown in FIG. On the other hand, the position controller 52 moves the sample stage 5 so that the sample position indicated by the signal Sll is obtained. In this example, three types of lens conditions and four types of sample positions are input to the photographing condition controller 50 at one time, and therefore there are 12 combinations of lens conditions and sample positions. Therefore, the shooting condition controller 5
0 sequentially changes the signals SIO and 811 to sequentially set the above 12 combination states. The photographing condition controller 50 sends a sheet movement signal SL2 to the sheet movement controller 53 each time this combination state is changed. The sheet movement controller 53 controls the drive of the table driving means 29 described above based on this movement signal S12 to move the monitor stimulable phosphor sheet 35 relative to the electron beam 2. The amount of movement and direction of movement at this time are determined according to a predetermined program.
The electron beam 2 is set so as to sequentially irradiate the portion 12.

Further, the photographing condition controller 50 sequentially changes the combination of lens conditions and sample positions as described above,
At the same time, each time the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 is moved, a drive signal S14 is sent to the shutter controller 57 to open the shutter 19 for a predetermined period of time. Shutter 1
9 is opened, the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 is irradiated with the electron beam 2, and the electron beam 2 carrying the electron microscope image of the sample 8 is irradiated onto the stimulable phosphor sheet 35.
is irradiated.

By performing the above operations, the stimulable phosphor sheet 3
5 includes a total of 12 electron microscope images (monitor images) each having a different field of view range and/or focus state.
is accumulated and recorded. Note that each lens condition (lens condition controller 5
1 output S15) is the number of each image (for example, 1.2.3...12 according to the recording order on the sheet 35).
) is stored in the lens condition memory 54. Similarly, the sample position is detected by the position sensor 55, and the sample position indicated by the output S1G of the sensor 55 is stored in the position memory 5G in correspondence with the number of each image.

Next, the monitor image is read.

The stimulable phosphor sheet 35 for monitoring is attached to the sheet conveying roller 3
1 is conveyed to the left in FIG. 1 at a predetermined speed. At this time, as described above, the excitation light beam 36a scans the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 (main scanning), and the sheet 35 is transported and sub-scanned, so that the excitation light beam 36a Scanned two-dimensionally.

Thereby, the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 emits stimulated luminescence light carrying twelve enlarged scattered images 8b. This stimulated luminescent light is collected by a light collector 33 having an incident end surface extending over the entire width of the stimulable phosphor sheet 35, and is photoelectrically detected by a second photomultiplier 34.

Electrical signal (monitor image signal) obtained by reading the stimulated luminescent light by the second photomultiplier 34
Sm is input to the image reading circuit 39, subjected to necessary amplification, digitization, and image processing, and then sent to the monitor image reproduction device 40.

The monitor image reproducing device 40 may be a display such as a CRT, or may be a device that performs optical scanning recording on a photosensitive film to obtain a hard copy. However, since the monitor image does not need to be very high-definition, it is preferable to use a display device in consideration of reproduction processing speed. In this way, by outputting an image using the monitor image signal 5I11 corresponding to the amount of stimulated luminescence light, the 12 enlarged scattered flbs carried by the stimulated luminescence light are reproduced as a monitor image.

After the reading is completed, the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 is transported to a position facing the second erasing light source 32, where it is irradiated with erasing light from the erasing light source 32, and becomes ready for reuse. This erasing mechanism is similar to the erasing process for the stimulable phosphor sheet 11, which will be described in detail later.

The electron microscope operator observes the field of view and focus state of the 12 enlarged scattered images 8b (monitor images) reproduced on the monitor image reproducing device 40 as described above, and selects an image in which these are in the most favorable state. Select. When the number of this selected monitor image is input into the photographing condition controller 50, the lens conditions and sample position corresponding to this image number are stored in the lens condition memory 5.
4. The lens conditions and sample position read out from the position memory 56 are set in the electron microscope 1. At this time, the lens conditions of the objective lens 6, intermediate lens 7°, and projection lens 7 are changed to increase the magnification, so that the electron beam 2 is irradiated almost entirely onto the stimulable phosphor sheet 11. do.

Next, when the aforementioned shutter 19 is opened, the energy of the electron beam 2 carrying the enlarged scattered image 8b of the sample 8 is accumulated and recorded on the first stimulable phosphor sheet 11 fixed to the imaged image 9. During this electron beam exposure, the optical shutter 2
4 is preferably closed. Next, the shutter 19 is closed and the light shutter 24 is opened, and then the excitation light beam 12a emitted from the excitation light source 12 and deflected in both the X and Y directions is made to be incident on the sheet 11 as described above.

The stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is two-dimensionally scanned by the excitation light beam 12a deflected in this way, and the sheet 11
emits stimulated luminescence light whose intensity corresponds to the level of the electron beam energy. This stimulated luminescence light is received by a first photomultiplier 15 from the back side of the sheet 11 through a glass 20 equipped with an optical filter that removes the excitation light beam 12a, and the amount of stimulated luminescence light is read photoelectrically. It will be done.

The electric signal (image signal) St obtained by reading the stimulated luminescence light by the first photomultiplier 15 is transmitted to the image reading circuit 22 and subjected to necessary amplification, digitization, image processing, etc. After that, the image reproducing device 2
Sent to 3. As this image reproducing device 23, a display device such as the above-mentioned CRT or an optical scanning recording device is used. By outputting an image using the image signal St corresponding to the amount of stimulated luminescence light in this manner, one enlarged scattering image 8b carried by the stimulated luminescence light is reproduced.

The electron microscope image reproduced in this way is 1
The one with the best viewing range and focus state was selected from the monitor images in step 2, and the lens conditions and sample position at that time were set and recorded on the stimulable phosphor sheet 11, so naturally the above selection was made. The viewing range and focus state will be the same as the monitor image that was displayed.

After the above image reading is completed, the optical shutter 24 provided between the first photomultiplier 15 and the optical filter glass 20 is closed, and the mirror 17 is placed in the optical path of the excitation light beam 12a. and the first erasing light source 16 is turned on.

As a result, the surface of the sheet 11 is exposed to the first erasing light 11.
Erasing light 18a emitted by 1ft is irradiated. Even when the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is irradiated with the excitation light beam 12a as described above, not all of the electron beam energy stored in the sheet 11 is released, and an afterimage may remain. However, here, as mentioned above, the stimulable phosphor sheet 1
By irradiating erasing light onto the stimulable phosphor sheet 11, the afterimage is erased and the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 becomes reusable. Further, by this erasing light irradiation, noise components due to radioactive elements such as 23Ra contained as impurities in the phosphor of C1-11 are also emitted. As the erasing light source 16, a tungsten lamp, a halogen lamp, an infrared lamp, a xenon flash lamp, a laser light source, or the like as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-11392 may be used. Further, the excitation light source 12 for reading may also be used for erasing.

Although the embodiment in which the monitor image reading section and the final output image reading section are provided separately has been described above, the reading of the monitor image and the final output image may be performed by one reading section. Further, a two-dimensional sensor for recording the monitor image and for recording the final output image may be shared. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the monitor image is used to check the field of view range and focus state of the electron microscope image, but it is possible to check only one of these and set the conditions when recording the final output image. You may also do so.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the stimulable phosphor sheet for monitor 3
This sheet 35 is moved in order to change the electron beam irradiation position (that is, the image recording position) on the sheet 5.
It is also possible to change the irradiation position by changing the deflection state of the electron beam 2 while keeping the sheet 35 fixed.

Although the embodiment of recording and reproducing an enlarged scattering image of the sample 8 by a transmitted electron beam has been described above, the present invention can also be applied to recording and reproducing the diffraction pattern of the sample described above. FIG. 3 shows how the diffraction pattern 8C of the sample 8 is recorded. In this embodiment, the electron microscope 80 is equipped with an intermediate lens 81 between the objective lens 6 and the projection lens 7, and the diffraction pattern 8C of the sample 8 formed on the back focal plane of the objective lens 7 is The image is enlarged and projected onto the imaging plane 9 by the intermediate lens 71 and the projection lens 7 that are focused on the back focal plane. In this case as well, if the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 as a two-dimensional sensor or the stimulable phosphor sheet 35 for monitoring is placed on the image forming plane 9, the diffraction pattern 8c caused by the transmitted electron beam 2 is formed on the sheet 11 or 35. An enlarged image of is stored and recorded. This accumulated and recorded diffraction pattern 8C can be read in exactly the same manner as explained with reference to FIG. 1, and the read image can be displayed on a CRT or reproduced as a hard copy.

In addition, the above-mentioned stimulable phosphor sheet 11 or 35
When using a thermophosphor sheet instead, in order to release the stored energy from this sheet by heating, it is sufficient to use a heating source that emits heat rays, such as a CO2 laser, and scan the thermophosphor sheet with this heat ray. For that purpose, for example, the description in Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-47720 may be referred to.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a plurality of monitor electron microscope images for finding a field of view and/or focusing are recorded on a two-dimensional monitor sensor, and each monitor electron microscope image is The operating conditions of the electron microscope at the time of recording are memorized, the multiple monitor electron microscope images are reproduced and the best one is selected, and the electron microscope at which the selected monitor electron microscope image was recorded is Since the final output image is recorded after setting the operating conditions, reading and reproducing the monitor image essentially only needs to be done once. Therefore, according to the method of the present invention, an electron microscope image with a desired viewing range and/or focus state can be reproduced in a short time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an apparatus for recording and reading electron microscope images by the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing how monitor images are recorded in the above apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a diagram according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing another example of an electron microscope to which the method is applied. 1...Electron microscope 2...Electron beam 8...Sample 9...Imaging plane 10 of the electron microscope...
- Electron microscope image recording/reading device 11...Storage phosphor sheet 12.36...Excitation light source 12a, 38a...Excitation light beam 13...
Optical scanning systems 13a, 13b, 37--optical deflector 15
. . . First photo multiplier 16 . . . First erasing light source 23 . . . Final output image reproducing device 29 . . . Table driving means 30 . . . Sheet transport table 31 . ...Second erasing light source 34...Second photo multiplier 35
. . . Monitoring stimulable phosphor sheet 40 . . . Monitor image reproducing device 50 . . . Shooting condition controller 51 . . . Lens condition controller 52 . Condition memory 55...Position sensor 5G...Position memory 57...Engraving on the shutter controller surface (no change in content) 1st Vg1

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A two-dimensional sensor that stores electron beam energy stores and records the electron beam that has passed through the sample in a vacuum state, and then the two-dimensional sensor is irradiated with light or heated to release the stored energy as light. , in an electron microscope image recording and reading method for photoelectrically detecting this emitted light and obtaining an image signal for outputting an electron microscope image carried by the electron beam as a visible image, prior to the accumulation recording operation of the electron beam. By irradiating electron beams that have passed through the sample in advance to different locations on a single two-dimensional monitor sensor with different viewing ranges and/or focus states of the sample, a plurality of electron microscope images are displayed on the sensor. The operation conditions of the electron microscope for obtaining the field of view range and/or focus state at this time are stored in a storage means in correspondence with each electron microscope image, and light irradiation or heating, photoelectrically detecting the emitted light at that time to obtain a monitor image signal, and based on the monitor image signal, the plurality of electrons accumulated and recorded in the monitor two-dimensional sensor reproducing the microscope images, observing these reproduced electron microscope images to select an electron microscope image with a desired viewing range and/or focus state, and setting the operating conditions corresponding to the selected electron microscope image as described above. A method for recording and reading an electron microscope image, characterized in that the conditions are read from a storage means, set in an electron microscope, and then an operation of accumulating and recording an electron beam on the two-dimensional sensor is performed. (2) The electron microscope image recording and reading method according to claim 1, wherein the operation for obtaining the image signal and the monitor image signal is performed while the two-dimensional sensor is placed in a vacuum state. (3) A stimulable phosphor sheet is used as the two-dimensional sensor, the electron beam that has passed through the sample is stored and recorded on this stimulable phosphor sheet in a vacuum state, and then the stimulable phosphor sheet is scanned with excitation light. 2. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the fluorescent light is emitted by the fluorescent lamp and the emitted fluorescent light is detected photoelectrically.
The described electron microscope image recording and reading method.