Sample holder and charged particle device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9721752-B2
Application number	US-201414912553-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2014
Priority date	Sep 30, 2013
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

The objective of the present invention is to maintain the surrounding of a sample at atmospheric pressure and efficiently detect secondary electrons. In a sample chamber of a charged particle device, a sample holder ( 4 ) has: a gas introduction pipe and a gas evacuation pipe for controlling the vicinity of a sample ( 20 ) to be an atmospheric pressure environment; a charged particle passage hole ( 18 ) and a micro-orifice ( 18 ) enabling detection of secondary electrons ( 15 ) emitted from the sample ( 20 ), co-located above the sample ( 20 ); and a charged particle passage hole ( 19 ) with a hole diameter larger than the micro-orifice ( 18 ) above the sample ( 20 ) so as to be capable of actively evacuating gas during gas introduction.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sample holder, comprising:
a gas introduction pipe;
a gas exhaust pipe, wherein the gas introduction pipe and the gas exhaust pipe are arranged to control surrounding of a sample in atmospheric pressure environment in a sample chamber of a charged particle device;
a micro orifice, disposed in an upper portion of the sample holder above the sample, that allows for detection of secondary electrons emanated from the sample; and
a charged particle passage hole, disposed in a lower portion of the sample holder below the sample, that has a larger diameter than a diameter of the micro orifice above the sample for positively performing exhaust upon gas introduction;
wherein a sample holder tip cap is selectable from a plurality of sample holder tip caps having different hole diameters of the micro orifice.

2. The sample holder according to claim 1 , wherein a state of the sample in gas atmosphere upon sample heating is observable by having a heater for heating the sample.

3. The sample holder according to claim 1 , having one or more gas exhaust holes in addition to the charged particle passage hole positioned below the sample.

4. The sample holder according to claim 1 , having a minute pressure measuring element for checking the pressure in the vicinity of the sample.

5. A sample holder provided in a charged particle device, the sample holder comprising:
a micro orifice, disposed in an upper portion of the sample holder above a sample, and arranged to avoid coaxial positioning of an emission direction of charged particles emanated from a charged particle generation source with a sample center, in the charged particle device, the micro orifice allowing for detection of secondary electrons emanated from the sample;
a gas introduction pipe;
a gas exhaustion pipe, wherein the gas introduction pipe and the gas exhaust pipe are arranged to control surrounding of the sample in atmospheric pressure environment; and
a diaphragm, through which the charged particles are transmitted, disposed in a lower portion of the sample holder below the sample;
wherein a sample holder tip cap is selectable from a plurality of sample holder tip caps having different hole diameters of the micro orifice.

6. The sample holder according to claim 5 , wherein the sample holder tip cap has a structure where a position of the diaphragm is changeable to a position above or below the sample.

7. The sample holder according to claim 1 , having a structure capable of performing a series of operations including processing the sample and observing the sample with different charged particles, and arbitrarily changing a sample direction with respect to an emission direction of the charged particles.

8. A charged particle device comprising:
a sample holder having a sample holding part that holds the sample, and an environment control part, including the sample holding part, that controls environment in the vicinity of the sample, and has a hole in a predetermined size above the sample;
a charged particle generation source that generates charged particles;
a charged particle passage and gas exhaust hole that receives charged particles emanated from the charged particle generation source and exhausts the received charged articles from the charged particle device upon gas introduction;
a lens that adjusts an emission direction of the charged particles generated from the charged particle generation source;
a detector that detects secondary electrons generated from the sample; and
wherein the hole of the sample holder is provided in a position not coaxial with the charged particle passage and gas exhaust hole, and by adjusting the emission direction of the charged particles generated from the charged particle generation source with the lens, the charged particles generated from the charged particle generation source are emitted through the hole of the sample holder to the sample, while the secondary electrons generated from the sample are discharged from the sample holder through the hole of the sample holder, and detected with the detector;
wherein a sample holder tip cap is selectable from a plurality of sample holder tip caps having different hole diameters of the micro orifice.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Nagakubo Yasuhira
• Nagaoki Isao
• Matsumoto Hiroaki
• Sato Takeshi

Classifications

• H01M8/04671

  of the individual fuel cell · CPC title

• H01J37/18

  Vacuum locks {; Means for obtaining or maintaining the desired pressure within the vessel} · CPC title

• G01N23/22

  by measuring secondary emission from the material · CPC title

• H01J2237/2806

  Secondary charged particle · CPC title

• H01J2237/006

  Details of gas supplies, e.g. in an ion source, to a beam line, to a specimen or to a workpiece, (H01J37/3244 takes precedence; environmental cells for electron microscopes H01J2237/2003; microscopes with environmental specimen chamber H01J2237/2608) · CPC title