  In scanning electron microscopy, the achievable image quality is often
limited by a maximum feasible acquisition time per dataset. Particularly with
regard to three-dimensional or large field-of-view imaging, a compromise must
be found between a high amount of shot noise, which leads to a low
signal-to-noise ratio, and excessive acquisition times. Assuming a fixed
acquisition time per frame, we compared three different strategies for
algorithm-assisted image acquisition in scanning electron microscopy. We
evaluated (1) raster scanning with a reduced dwell time per pixel followed by a
state-of-the-art Denoising algorithm, (2) raster scanning with a decreased
resolution in conjunction with a state-of-the-art Super Resolution algorithm,
and (3) a sparse scanning approach where a fixed percentage of pixels is
visited by the beam in combination with state-of-the-art inpainting algorithms.
Additionally, we considered increased beam currents for each of the strategies.
The experiments showed that sparse scanning using an appropriate reconstruction
technique was superior to the other strategies.
