5th order aberrations

"Five Seidel aberrations" are proportional to the cube of α (angle between the incident electron beam and optical axis) and r (distance of the electron beam from the optical axis). "The 5th order aberrations" or so called "nine Schwarzschild aberrations" mean the aberrations of the next order to the Seidel aberrations or those proportional to the fifth power of α and r. Due to the development of Cs correctors, the third-order spherical aberration and third-order axial (parasitic) aberrations have nowadays been successfully corrected. The fourth-order axial (parasitic) aberrations can be corrected by the alignment of the optical axis. Thus, the fifth-order axial aberrations must be considered to decrease blurring of an image. If we have a Cs corrector with transfer lenses, the value of the fifth-order spherical aberration C₅α⁵ is adjustable, thus C₅α⁵ = 0 being possible. In the case of two-stage hexapole type correctors, efforts to minimize the axial (parasitic) 6-fold rotation astigmatism among the 5th order aberrations have been made.

Related Term(s)