If you have seen the abbreviation SE in a scientific article or image, it probably stands for Secondary Electron.
Secondary Electron (SE) is a type of electron that is scattered by an electron beam. Or, more specifically, SE is a mode in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) that uses these secondary electrons.
Secondary electrons (SEs) come from the inelastic scattering between the SEM electron gun and the atoms in the sample. Detecting SEs provides information about the sample surface.
Secondary electrons are one type of imaging mode in the SEM. Backscatter electrons (BSEs) are another mode.
This article is a definition. If you want to learn more about SEM, including SE and BSE techniques, check out this full article!
Related Terms:
SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy)
BSE (Backscatter Electron)
EDS, also called EDX or EDXS (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy)
OM (Optical Microscope)
TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope)
