PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND THE SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE

Abstract

The scanning electron microscope forms images of the surfaces of objects located in a vacuum specimen chamber. A fine beam of electrons scans the surface in synchronism with a cathode ray tube whose spot brightness is modulated by the secondary electron signal emanating from the specimen. The system is capable of giving a large depth of focus and thus allows different projections of the specimen to be photographed by tilting the specimen between successive exposures. From a knowledge of the geometry of the projection (which is central or perspective, but may be justifiably treated as a parallel or orthogonal case for high magnification images), it is therefore possible to proceed to three dimensional analyses from the measurement of parallaxes. Part I of this paper deals with the practical problems resulting from mechanical design limitations of specimen stages and plotting instruments, as well as the nature and sources of image distortions. Part II deals with the practical features of the successful plotting instruments designed especially for the solution of a standardised scanning electron microscope problem in which the magnification of the two members of a stereoscopic pair of images is held constant, the angle of divergence of the peripheral “rays” of the projection from the central “ray” is assumed to be negligible (which is the case for high magnification images) and the tilt angle difference between the two specimen attitudes is constant.