## 1 Introduction  
The rapid pace of technological development requires a detailed study of minerals to a further extent to meet the unprecedented material demands of the evolving world. There are more than 5956 species of minerals known today, and the number of new identifications is evolving, with as many as 50 new types identified each year [1; 2]. Quantitative measurements and qualitative analyses of mineral compositions within mining ores and reservoirs have valuable importance with practical applications. Comprehensive and accurate information can be gathered for the identification of rocks and minerals, including structural characteristics and mineral composition, which can provide worthy information about pore structure and reservoir heterogeneity [3; 4; 5]. The qualitative analysis of minerals is usually conducted through conventional optical microscopy (OM), also known as light microscopy (LM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and infrared spectroscopy methods [6; 7; 8]. Mineral characteristics and mutual relationships are broadly analyzed by OM; however, due to resolution limitations, qualitative analyses of micro and nanoscale particles, including their structural characteristics and mineral morphology, are lacking [9; 10]. OM can obtain a maximum useful magnification of 1000 times [11]. The wavelength of imaging radiation can be further decreased for better resolution (i.e., higher useful magnification). OM uses light as imaging radiation, while electron microscopy makes use of electrons to magnify the specimen. Electron beams are accelerated with high energies (from 2 keV to 1000 keV, representing smaller wavelengths of 0.027 nm to 0.0009 nm) in electron microscopes [11]. The bombardment of high-energy electron beams on the atoms in a specimen can result in various possible interactions (Figure 1), which are subject to the thickness of the specimen. The electrons can be transmitted unabsorbed through the specimen if its thickness is very small and can be used to form an image in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) [12]. In contrast, with thicker specimens, electrons are not transmitted, and the particles (electrons, photons, X-rays, etc.) emerging from the surface of the specimen provide morphological and structural information. Low-energy electron beams ranging from 0.1 keV to 30 keV penetrate the sample from a few to tens of nanometers. Medium-energy beams ranging from 30 keV to 1000 keV penetrate from tens of nanometers to micrometers, while high-energy beams, which are usually above 10,000 keV, can penetrate from several micrometers to millimeters within samples. The retrieved information signals are used in SEM to provide sample characteristic information [13]. SEM can be used to analyze the crystalline structure, surface topography, electrical behavior, and chemical composition of approximately 1 \(\upmu\)m of the top part of a specimen [11]. The behavior of the specimen under several conditions can be investigated using SEM, as a variety of specialized stages can be applied, such as cold [14], hot [15], or in situ mechanical testing [16]. For instance, cathodoluminescence (emission of light) works very well for temperatures near absolute zero compared to room temperature [17; 18]. The images formed are much less noisy from light emitted by a cold specimen. For similar reasons, transmission electron microscopy is used for samples cooled to cryogenic temperatures and is known as cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) [19; 20; 21]. SEM has additional advantages over OM. For example, SEM has a powerful useful magnification of 1,000,000 times and can reach the nanometer scale [22]. This allows an in  
Figure 1: Various possible interactions of high-energy electrons with atoms. The atomic shells are labeled with standard notation (i.e., K, L, M). The incident particle is shown with a solid arrow.