Development of a wire corrector for low accelerating voltage scanning electron microscopy

Aberration correctors are essential for achieving high-resolution imaging in advanced electron microscopy. However, their complexity and cost have limited their integration into conventional scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), particularly in low-voltage applications. In this study, we present a wire aberration corrector that utilizes symmetrically arranged current lines to generate multipole fields. The corrector was implemented in a cold field emission SEM equipped with a bright-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) detector and operated at 30 kV. Experimental results demonstrate successful generation of quadrupole to dodecapole fields, effective correction of spherical aberration and improved imaging of carbon multilayers. These findings demonstrate that wire correctors offer a compact and cost-effective means to enhance imaging performance in standard SEM systems, and the underlying principle could be adapted for other electron microscopy platforms such as TEM or STEM.