Nebula: Monte Carlo simulator of electron–matter interaction

Monte Carlo simulations are frequently used to describe electron–matter interaction in the 0–50 keV energy range. It often takes hours to simulate electron microscope images using first-principle physical models. In an attempt to maintain a reasonable speed, empirical models are sometimes used. We present an open-source software package with...

Surface effects in simulations of scanning electron microscopy images

Background: Monte Carlo simulations of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images ignore most surface effects, such as surface plasmons. Previous experiments have shown that surface plasmons play an important role in the emission of secondary electrons (SEs).Aim: We investigate the influence of incorporating surface plasmons into simulations...

Surface effects in simulations of scanning electron microscopy images

We have investigated the contributions of surface effects to Monte Carlo simulations of top-down scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The elastic and inelastic scattering mechanisms in typical simulations assume that the electron is deep in the bulk of the material. In this work, we correct the inelastic model for surface effects. We...