To apply the Monte Carlo method to more realistic applications with complex sample, three-dimensional (3D) Monte Carlo softwares are needed. For various reasons, but principally because of the long simulation time and large computer memory needed, the previous version of CASINO was limited to simple geometry ( Drouin and others, 2007). Monte Carlo software was used to understand the capabilities of electron microscopes at higher energy (> 10 keV) ( Newbury and Yakowitz, 1976) or at lower energy (< 5 keV) ( Hovington and others, 1997). The Monte Carlo method is useful to help understand these instruments ( Joy, 1995b). To fully understand and extract all the information available from these instruments, the complex electron-matter interactions have to be understood.
They can even be used to manufacture integrated circuits by electron beam lithography. Electron microscopes are useful instruments used to observe and characterize various types of samples: observation of complex integrated circuits, small nanoparticles in biological samples or nano-precipitates, and dislocations by cathodoluminescence just to name a few examples.
