We evaluated the depth resolution of annular dark-field (ADF) scanning confocal electron microscopy (SCEM) with a stage-scanning system by observation of nanoparticles. ADF-SCEM is a three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique that we recently proposed. An ADF-SCEM instrument involves a pinhole aperture before a detector for rejecting electrons from the out-of-focal plane in a specimen and an annular aperture under the specimen for collecting only scattered electrons. The stage-scanning system enables us to directly obtain optical slice images perpendicular and parallel to an optical axis at a desired position. In particular, the parallel slices visualize the elongation of nanoparticles along the optical axis, which depends on the depth resolution. ADF-SCEM effectively reduced the elongation length of the nanoparticles sufficiently to demonstrate depth sectioning, in comparison with scanning transmission electron microscopy and bright-field SCEM. The experimentally obtained length was nearly equal to the theoretically estimated one from the probe size considering the experimental conditions. Furthermore, we applied this ADF-SCEM technique to analysis of the 3D position of catalytic nanoparticles on carbon nanostructures.

Aberration correction leads to reduced focal depth of field in the electron microscope. This reduced depth of field can be exploited to probe specific depths within a sample, a process known as optical sectioning. An electron microscope fitted with aberration correctors for both the pre- and postspecimen optics can be used in a confocal mode that provides improved depth resolution and selectivity over optical sectioning in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). In this article we survey the coherent and incoherent imaging modes that are likely to be used in scanning confocal electron microscopy (SCEM) and provide simple expressions to describe the images that result. Calculations compare the depth response of SCEM to optical sectioning in the STEM. The depth resolution in a crystalline matrix is also explored by performing a Bloch wave calculation for the SCEM geometry in which the pre- and postspecimen optics are defocused away from their confocal conditions.