Controlling Your System (With a Manual Electron Gun Controller)

(Click here if you have a digital electron gun control)

To access the Scanning and Electron Gun Control dialog, click Scanning from the System menu.

Using the Slider Controls in the Scanning Control Dialog

To provide better control for fine-tuning system parameters, the slider controls in the Scanning Dialog work a little differently than standard Microsoft Windows sliders.

Holding the left mouse-button down while dragging a slider thumb past an endpoint will continue to adjust the slider in that direction.

To center the slider, right-click anywhere on the control (it does not have to be on the thumb)

Keyboard Commands

Many of the commands in the Scanning Control Dialog can be modified using the keyboard. Click here for a keyboard command reference (note that some of these commands do not apply when using a manual gun control).

Electron Gun Settings

The entries for Beam Voltage and Emission Current are for record keeping only, since you cannot control them directly through AugerScan.

It’s prudent to enter the beam voltage here when you change it manually, since the current beam voltage will affect the maximum allowable size of your image, and help the software determine if you are outside of the allowable range.

Note that if you have AugerScan 3, entering the beam voltage here will update it automatically in AugerScan. This is especially important if you calculate the atomic concentration for an AugerScan acquisition, since the beam voltage value is necessary in determining what sensitivity factor to use.

Raster Controls

These controls are used to position the beam and determine where your image is displayed. Note that the image displayed on the TV monitor is the same area within which images are acquired. If you change the size/mag and position in between acquiring image acquisitions, you can acquire acquisitions at different locations (as long as you do not move the sample stage).

Note that the size must first be calibrated before the units for size, magnification, and position will be represent true values. This normally only needs to be done once when the upgrade is installed.

The magnification value is based on a factor of 100,000x to 1 micron, meaning that a 1um image is considered at 100,000 mag displayed at 10cm. This is approximate, of course, since the true magnification is dependent on the size of the output device. Note that this value is fixed and unaffected by calibration

Size and Magnification

These controls both perform the same function - they increase or decrease the size of the image. You can type a value or scroll the Size field to change the size, or if you prefer, you can use the Mag field. The Size/Mag Slider bar allows you to make fine adjustments to the size and mag in real time.

The maximum size available to you is based on your beam voltage. If you adjust the size outside the range allowable by your hardware (normally caused by rastering over too large an area for a particular beam voltage), you will see a warning displayed at the bottom of the dialog box. At this point you may still adjust the size outside of the range, but the image on your TV monitor will not change. This means you probably need to adjust the Size to be smaller (or the Mag to be larger).

Position

Use the X and Y fields to adjust the position, or the X and Y Slider bars for fine control. The available range of the position is dependent on the current size and beam voltage.

Mode

Select one of these options to determine the current raster mode.

Select TV for normal TV operation. You need to be in TV mode to see an image.

Select Point to go into point mode. This will center the beam on the image. This is useful for acquiring Auger data using AugerScan when you don’t need to go to a specific location other than the center of the image.

Select Area for area mode operation. This is a fast scan over the entire area of the image. This is useful when you want to acquire Auger data that is averaged over the entire image.