side-entry stage

A specimen stage into which the specimen is inserted from the side of the polepiece of the objective lens. Compared with the top-entry stage, the "side-entry stage" has disadvantages of instability to vibrations and heat. However, in the case of this stage, a space above the specimen stage can be effectively used to add analytical functions (tools) and to achieve large tilt angles of the specimen. Thus, the side-entry stage is very useful in applications to materials science and tomography. Furthermore, the advantages of this stage include: a nano-sized beam is produced on the specimen with the use of the C-O lens, and a large take-off angle of an EDS detector is achieved. Therefore, the side-entry stage is suitable for analytical electron microscopy.

Related Term(s)