Reducing charging effects in scanning electron microscope images by Rayleigh contrast stretching method (RCS)

To reduce undesirable charging effects in scanning electron microscope images, Rayleigh contrast stretching is developed and employed. First, re‐scaling is performed on the input image histograms with Rayleigh algorithm. Then, contrast stretching or contrast adjustment is implemented to improve the images while reducing the contrast charging artifacts. This technique has been compared to some existing histogram equalization (HE) extension techniques: recursive sub‐image HE, contrast stretching dynamic HE, multipeak HE and recursive mean separate HE. Other post processing methods, such as wavelet approach, spatial filtering, and exponential contrast stretching, are compared as well. Overall, the proposed method produces better image compensation in reducing charging artifacts. SCANNING 33: 233–251, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.