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Image quality evaluation for FIB-SEM images |
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| Authors: | Diego Roldán Claudia Redenbach Katja Schladitz Christian Kübel Sabine Schlabach |
| Affiliation: | 1. National University, Bogotá, Colombia;2. RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Kaiserslautern, Germany;3. Fraunhofer Institute of Industrial Mathematics, Kaiserslautern, Germany;4. Institute of Nanotechnology (INT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility (KNMFi), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany Research group in-situ electron microscopy, Joint Research Laboratory Nanomaterials, Department of Materials & Earth Sciences, Technical University Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany;5. Institute of Nanotechnology (INT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany |
| Abstract: | Focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) tomography is a serial sectioning technique where an FIB mills off slices from the material sample that is being analysed. After every slicing, an SEM image is taken showing the newly exposed layer of the sample. By combining all slices in a stack, a 3D image of the material is generated. However, specific artefacts caused by the imaging technique distort the images, hampering the morphological analysis of the structure. Typical quality problems in microscopy imaging are noise and lack of contrast or focus. Moreover, specific artefacts are caused by the FIB milling, namely, curtaining and charging artefacts. We propose quality indices for the evaluation of the quality of FIB-SEM data sets. The indices are validated on real and experimental data of different structures and materials. |
| Keywords: | blur charging artefacts contrast curtaining artefacts no-reference evaluation noise |