Patent ID: 8604445

Claim:
A method of evacuating a sample holder in a sample holder system permitting a sample to be inserted into an electron optical column of a microscope, said method comprising the steps of: preparing a hermetic sample chamber holding the sample therein and a seal cap connected with the hermetic sample chamber via a rod; mounting the hermetic sample chamber and the seal cap in a glove box; taking the sample holder out of the glove box together with the whole seal cap while the hermetic sample chamber and the seal cap are contained in the glove box; loading the sample into the hermetic sample chamber; bringing the sample holder system excluding the hermetic sample chamber to atmospheric state; removing the seal cap from the sample holder; setting the holder to an electron microscope goniometer; mounting pumping control means for controlling a vacuum pumping sequence; evacuating an inside of the goniometer to a given low vacuum state while a pressure inside the hermetic sample chamber is kept constant by the pumping control means; then opening a partition valve of the hermetic sample chamber by the pumping control means to bring the sample chamber to said low vacuum state; then bringing the goniometer and the hermetic sample chamber to a high vacuum state by the pumping control means; and then moving the sample into a front-end portion of the goniometer and inserting the sample holder into the electron optical column.