Three-dimensional imaging of carbon nanostructures by scanning confocal electron microscopy

Although scanning confocal electron microscopy (SCEM) shows a promise for optical depth sectioning with high resolution, practical and theoretical problems have prevented its application to three-dimensional (3D) imaging. We employed a stage-scanning system in which only the specimen is moved three dimensionally under a fixed lens configuration, and an annular dark-field (ADF) aperture which blocks direct beams and selects only the scattered electrons. This ADF-SCEM improved depth resolution sufficiently to perform optical depth sectioning. Finally, we succeeded in demonstrating the 3D reconstruction of carbon nanocoils using ADF-SCEM. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3225103]