Controlling Your System (With a Digital Electron Gun Controller)
(Click here if you have a manual electron gun control)
To access the Scanning and Electron Gun Control dialog, click Scanning from the System menu.
IMPORTANT
Because AugerMap is controlling your electron gun and multiplier supply, you
must be familiar with your system operation before using the controls in this
dialog box. The use, range, and typical values of many of the parameters listed
here will be dependent on your particular system type and combination of
controls. Please refer to your system documentation or contact RBD if you are unsure of any aspect of system operation.
Also, note that some of the controls documented here may not be available on
your particular system.
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.
Electron Gun Settings
On / Off
Click the On button to turn your electron gun on. Caution: Turning the gun on will cause all settings in this dialog box to take
effect. Double check that the values (especially for the emission current)
make sense before turning on. Also, ensure that your manual hardware controls
(such as filament current) are correctly adjusted for the current conditions.
There will be a delay (shown by an hourglass cursor) before the settings will
take effect and you will have control, because the beam voltage is ramped
slowly to the requested value. Higher beam voltages will take longer. This occurs
any time that you change the beam voltage.
Click the Off button to turn the electron gun off immediately.
Note that AugerMap does not automatically turn your electron gun off if you close this dialog, or even if
you close the application.
Beam Blanking
Click the Blank checkbox to blank the beam. Uncheck to un-blank the beam. Beam blanking
takes place immediately, since the beam voltage remains unchanged.
Beam
Type or scroll a to change the value of beam voltage in the Beam voltage field. This value will not take effect immediately. You must click the Set button next to the Beam voltage field for this change to take effect. The Set button is only enabled if the value of the Beam voltage field has been changed.
Emission
Type or scroll to change the value of the emission voltage in the Emission field. This value represents the emission voltage as a percentage of the
available range, which is the inverse of the current. A lower value here means a higher emission current. This value will not take effect immediately. You must click the Set button next to the Emission voltage field for this change to take effect. The Set button is only enabled if the value of the Emission voltage field has been changed.
You may also use the Emission Fine Control Slider (just below the emission field) to adjust the emission in real-time by a
small amount. This takes effect immediately.
Condenser
Type of scroll the value of the Condenser field to change the condenser value, or use the Condenser Fine Control Slider to adjust the value by smaller increments. Any change to the condenser takes affect immediately.
Objective
Type or scroll the value of the Objective field to change the objective value, or use the Objective Fine Control Slider to adjust the value by smaller increments. Any change to the objective takes affect immediately.
The objective affects the overall focus of the image. You will most likely
have a fine objective control knob on your system for additional control. If you
have a 660 system, the Auto-Focus command (in the TV Monitor Window) can help automatically set the objective value.
X and Y Stigmators
Type or scroll the value of the X or Y Stigmator fields to change the X or Y stigmator values (respectively), or use the X or Y Fine Control Sliders to adjust the values by smaller increments. Any change to the stigmators takes affect immediately.
Condenser and Objective Steering
Note: Not all systems support steering control.
Before you can have accurate control of the condenser and objective lenses,
you should adjust the condenser and objective steering. The condenser and
objective lenses are magnetic, and each have an optimum point associated with them.
The X and Y Steering adjustments vary the position of beam going into lenses to
optimize current and beam shape (which affects image quality)
To adjust the condenser or objective steering, click the corresponding Steer button to the right of either the condenser or objective controls. This will
open the steering dialog. The procedure for adjusting the steering is
basically the same for both. You should start with a good, high-contrast TV image.
The image should be as much in focus as possible.
When you open the steering dialog, you may notice the TV image shifting. This
is caused by “rocking” the lenses – the software varies the condenser (or objective) by the amount shown in the Distance field. The steering adjustment basically consists of varying the X and Y Positions in order to minimize this shift.
You can vary the amount of “rocking” by entering or scrolling a new value in the Distance field, a good nominal value being around 5%. The rocking speed is determined
by the Speed slider, which is normally set about a quarter way from slow to fast.
Taking note of the direction of the shift, you should now vary the X and Y Position (use the X and Y Sliders for fine adjustments) to minimize the amount of shifting. The nominal values
for these are 50 um.
If at any time the adjustments you make seem to make things worse, and you
find it difficult to reverse, simply hit the Reset button to revert all parameters back to their default values.
Video Controls
ABS
Click the ABS button to select the ABS video mode. You may also select the ABS Gain from the list in the combo-box to the right of the ABS control. The
selection of gains available depends on your ABS preamp.
SED and SED Multiplier
Click the SED button to select the SED video mode. If you have a digital SED multiplier,
you will also be able to select the SED Multiplier Voltage by typing or
scrolling a value in the SED Multiplier field. Note that this change takes place immediately if the SED multiplier is on.
There is no on/off control for the SED multiplier voltage – it is turned on automatically when you select SED video mode and the TV is
on. The SED multiplier is turned off when you turn off the TV, or when you
switch to ABS video mode. The SED multiplier is also turned on and off
automatically when acquiring an SED video image.
The SED multiplier voltage setting plays a large part of the quality of your
TV image. If you have a 660 system with a digital TV control, click here for more information.
Invert
Check the Invert box to invert the video image. This will not only affect the image on your
TV, but also and SED or ABS images that your acquire. (Note that you can always invert images after they are acquired).
Current Meter
Depending on your system configuration, there are a variety of current meters
available in AugerMap. All current meters need to be calibrated before they can
display correct values. Click here for more information on calibration.
Emission Current
If your system has the ability to digitally monitor emission current, it will
automatically be displayed here whenever the electron gun is on.
Beam Current
If your system has the ability to digitally monitor electron beam current, you
can click the Beam Checkbox to initiate beam current monitoring. You will then be able to monitor beam
current until you uncheck the box. Normal system operation is suspended while
monitoring beam current. Please consult your system documentation for the proper
procedures for monitoring beam current.
Ion Current
If your system has the ability to digitally monitor ion current, you can click
the Ion Checkbox to initiate ion current monitoring. You will then be able to monitor ion
current until you uncheck the box. Normal system operation is suspended while
monitoring ion current. Please consult your system documentation for the proper
procedures for monitoring ion current.
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 100,000 to 1 micron, meaning
that a 1um image is considered to be at 100,000x 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 beam position, or the X and Y Slider bars for fine control in real time. 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.
(660 Users – The TV is automatically turned on when opening the TV dialog box. You use the controls in the TV dialog to select Point and Area modes when
the TV is turned off. By default, closing the TV dialog sets the beam into
point 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.
Saving and Loading Settings
You can save and load all of your scanning settings (including TV monitor settings if your system supports that).
There are three buttons at the top of the dialog for controlling your scanning
settings, as well as the filename (which will appear in the Settings box).
To Save your current settings, click the Save (middle) button, and give the settings a name in the file dialog.
To Open a group of settings, click the Open (leftmost) button, and select the file. IMPORTANT: If the electron gun is on, these settings will take effect
immediately. Make sure when you are saving settings that they are “safe”. If you are unsure about a group of settings when opening them, turn your
electron gun off first.)
To revert to the previous settings, click the Revert (rightmost) button. This will load the last group of settings used before
you opened any new settings. This is especially useful, for example, if you
opened a group of settings that caused you to loose you image, etc.