Abstract
In this study, the effect of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) parameters such as magnification (M), accelerating voltage (V), and working distance (WD) on the 3D digital reconstruction technique, as the first step of the quantitative characterization of fracture surfaces with SEM, was investigated. The 2D images were taken via a 4-Quadrant Backscattered Electron (4Q-BSE) detector. In this study, spherical particles of Ti-6Al-4V (15-45 μm) deposited on the silicon substrate were used. It was observed that the working distance has a significant influence on the 3D digital rebuilding method via SEM images. The results showed that the best range of the working distance for our system is 9 to 10 mm. It was shown that by increasing the magnification to 1000x, the 3D digital reconstruction results improved. However, there was no significant improvement by increasing the magnification beyond 1000x. In addition, results demonstrated that the lower the accelerating voltage, the higher the precision of the 3D reconstruction technique, as long as there are clean backscattered signals. The optimal condition was achieved when magnification, accelerating voltage, and working distance were chosen as 1000x, 3 kV, and 9 mm, respectively.
Highlights
The development of the scanning electron microscope (SEM)[1] and the 3D digital reconstruction techniques [2,3,4] along with the development of image processing methods, hardware and software, can significantly help in a broad range of applications such as investigation of fracture surfaces [5], surface engineering [6], 3D printing [7], and biological researches [8]
The imaging process was performed with the SU3500 variable-pressure SEM with the 4-Quadrant Backscattered Electron (4Q-backscattered electron (BSE)) detector (Figure 2) in the vacuum mode (30 Pa) with only one scan to find out the effect of SEM parameters such as magnification (M), accelerating voltage (V), and working distance (WD)
The BSE images of the different spherical particles which were taken at different working distances are shown in Figure 9 shows the value of the relative radius as a function of magnification (M), accelerating voltage (V), and working distance (WD) for different sizes of particles, separately
Summary
The development of the scanning electron microscope (SEM)[1] and the 3D digital reconstruction techniques [2,3,4] along with the development of image processing methods, hardware and software, can significantly help in a broad range of applications such as investigation of fracture surfaces [5], surface engineering [6], 3D printing [7], and biological researches [8]. There is a large body of research in literature on SEM parameters on the quality of 3D digital images which are obtained with SEM micrographs. Some efforts have been devoted to improving the quality and correctness of the 3D digital images which were obtained with secondary electron (SE) images [13,14,15]. It is reported that the SEM magnification does not improve 3D digital reconstruction results [4]. By taking into account that rotation and tilting are two main factors in 3D digital reconstruction of SEM images, it was observed that for the case of rotations, the largest uncertainty contribution is due to the reproducibility of the rotational angle, followed by the bias of the pixel size. Since the presence of a rough surface differs significantly with the type, solid angle, and take-off angle of the detector used to collect the signal [23], the location of the detector could play a significant role for obtaining more signals from rough surfaces
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