Patent ID: 8759760

Claim:
A combined inspection system comprising: a light-optical system configured to provide a light-optical beam path and comprising a light-optical lens arranged in the light-optical beam path, wherein the light-optical lens includes a first lens surface facing towards a sample plane, a second lens surface facing away from the sample plane and a through hole; a particle-optical system configured to provide a particle-optical beam path such that the particle-optical beam path traverses the through hole of the light-optical lens, wherein the particle-optical system comprises a beam deflection device configured to scan a primary particle beam over a portion of a sample plane; and a controller configured to control the beam deflection device such that the deflected primary particle beam intersects an optical axis of the particle-optical beam path in a plane arranged at a distance from both the first lens surface and the second lens surface which is smaller than 1.0 times a distance between the first lens surface and the second lens surface.