The image of a line width test object in a scanning electron microscope with different energies of the probe electrons

Results of studies of the influence of the energy of the probe electrons in the range 0.3-20 keV on the image of a line width test object in the nanometric range in a scanning electron microscope are presented. It is shown that the range of energies of the primary electrons may be divided into three sub-ranges. At electron energies less than 2.5 keV (low-voltage operating mode) and greater than 10 keV (high-voltage operating mode) the image that is formed in the course of collecting secondary slow electrons can be used to take measurements of the line width of a test object by means of known methods. For the intermediate range of energies of the primary electrons, there are no methods that may be used to measure the line width.