Specific features of the miniature ionisation BSE multi-detector unit for 3D imaging in environmental conditions.

The author has been striving to develop SEM equipment that could extend the capabilities of standard instruments to allow advanced environmental techniques, including 3D imaging. Now its improved version is presented in a form of the miniature ionisation multi-detector unit that can be accommodated inside a bore of the objective lens and does not limit the minimal Working Distance (WD). The miniature detector unit seems well suited to VP/ESEM of any type to be used instead a standard Pressure Limiting Aperture and even to the classic SEM when combined with the vacuum-detector head and an intermediate vacuum system.

Detection of secondary and backscattered electrons for 3D imaging with multi-detector method in VP/ESEM.

The paper considers some major problems of adapting the multi-detector method for three-dimensional (3D) imaging of wet bio-medical samples in Variable Pressure/Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (VP/ESEM). The described method pertains to "single-view techniques", which to create the 3D surface model utilise a sequence of 2D SEM images captured from a single view point (along the electron beam axis) but illuminated from four directions. The basis of the method and requirements resulting from them are given for the detector systems of secondary (SE) and backscattered electrons (BSE), as well as designs of the systems which could work in variable conditions.