Editing Scanning electron microscope (section)

==Principles and capacities==
[[File:Schottky-Emitter 01.jpg|thumb|Schottky-emitter electron source]]
[[File:Electron-matter interaction volume and various types of signal generated - v2.svg|thumb|Electron–matter interaction volume and types of signal generated]]
The signals used by an SEM to make an image result from interactions between the electron beam and atoms at various depths within the sample. Various types of signals are produced including [[secondary electrons]] (SE), reflected or [[Backscatter|back-scattered electrons]] (BSE), characteristic X-rays and light ([[cathodoluminescence]]) (CL), absorbed current (specimen current) and transmitted electrons.  Secondary electron detectors are standard equipment in all SEMs, but it is rare for a single machine to have detectors for all other possible signals.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Secondary electrons have very low energies on the order of 50 [[Electronvolt|eV]], which limits their [[Inelastic mean free path|mean free path]] in solid matter.  Consequently, SEs can only escape from the top few nanometers of the surface of a sample.  The signal from secondary electrons tends to be highly localized at the point of impact of the primary electron beam, making it possible to collect images of the sample surface with a resolution of below 1 [[Nanometre|nm]]. Back-scattered electrons (BSE) are beam electrons that are reflected from the sample by [[elastic scattering]]. Since they have much higher energy than SEs, they emerge from deeper locations within the specimen and, consequently, the resolution of BSE images is less than SE images. However, BSE are often used in analytical SEM, along with the spectra made from the characteristic X-rays, because the intensity of the BSE signal is strongly related to the atomic number (Z) of the specimen. BSE images can provide information about the distribution, but not the identity, of different elements in the sample.  In samples predominantly composed of light elements, such as biological specimens, BSE imaging can image [[colloidal gold]] [[Immunogold labelling|immuno-labels]] of 5 or 10&nbsp;nm diameter, which would otherwise be difficult or impossible to detect in secondary electron images.<ref name="Suzuki-2002"/> Characteristic [[X-ray]]s are emitted when the electron beam removes an [[Electron shell|inner shell electron]] from the sample, causing a [[Energy level|higher-energy electron]] to fill the shell and release energy. The energy or wavelength of these characteristic X-rays can be measured by [[Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy]] or [[Wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy]] and used to identify and measure the abundance of elements in the sample and map their distribution.

Due to the very narrow electron beam, SEM micrographs have a large [[depth of field]] yielding a characteristic three-dimensional appearance useful for understanding the surface structure of a sample.<ref name="Goldstein-1981" /> This is exemplified by the micrograph of pollen shown above. A wide range of magnifications is possible, from about 10 times (about equivalent to that of a powerful hand-lens) to more than 500,000 times, about 250 times the magnification limit of the best [[light microscope]]s.