A robust focusing and astigmatism correction method for the scanning electron microscope

This paper discusses a new approach to focusing and astigmatism correction based on the fast fourier transforms (FFTs) of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. From the FFTs, it is possible to obtain information on the severity of the defocus and astigmatism. This information is then processed by an algorithm to perform real-time focusing and astigmatism correction on the SEM. The algorithm has been tested on defocused and astigmatic images of different samples, including those with highly directional features. Experiments show that the images obtained after running the algorithm can be as good as those that an experienced SEM operator can achieve.