Patent ID: 8471203

Claim:
A particle beam microscope having a beam path that traverses an object region, the particle beam microscope comprising: an illumination system located in the beam path upstream of the object region, the illumination system comprising a first particle optical lens, and the illumination system being configured to direct particles to the object region such that the particles are incident at the object region only from directions oriented under an angle, relative to a main axis of the beam path, which is greater than an inner apex angle; and a detection system located in the beam path downstream of the object region and configured to detect only one group of particles among first and second groups of particles that traversed the object region, the first group of particles comprising only particles that traversed the object region along a straight line and particles scattered at the object region by an angle smaller than a scattering limit angle, and the second group of particles comprising only particles scattered at the object region by a scattering angle greater than the scattering limit angle, wherein the detection system comprises an aperture plate having an aperture with a radial inner edge located a distance from an optical axis of the particle beam microscope.