Team studies how new helium ion microscope measures up

In-depth look: An image of gold atoms on tin from a state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope (left) has relatively poor depth of field-only parts of the image are in sharp focus. By contrast, the entire image from a helium ion microscope image (right) is sharp and clear. NIST researchers are studying helium ion microscopes to improve measurements at the nanoscale that are important to the semiconductor and nanomanufacturing industries. Credit: NIST