Charge
particle beam device (1) irradiating a sample (8) with a charge
particle beam (30), comprising: a charge
particle source (2) configured to irradiate the sample (8) with primary charge particles (30); a
light source (10) configured to emit light that is emitted towards the sample (8); a
detector (5) configured to detect secondary charge particles generated by irradiating the sample (8) with primary charge particles from the sample (8); an
image processing unit (18) configured to generate an observational image of the sample (8) using the secondary charge particles detected by the
detector (5); and a
light intensity control unit (14) configured to set an
irradiance of light per
unit of time, and an absorption properties measuring unit (13) configured to measure an amount of absorption of the light absorbed by the sample (8); characterized in that the charge particle device (1) further comprises: a storage unit (27) configured to store correspondence data describing a correspondence between the amount of absorption measured by the absorption properties measuring unit (13) and the
light irradiance per unit time, wherein the
light intensity control unit (14) causes the
image processing unit to produce a multitude of observation images, each exhibiting a different contrast, by changing the
irradiance of the light per
unit of time, wherein the sample (8) has a property that the emission quantity of secondary charge particles changes depending on the
light irradiation intensity per unit time, The
light intensity control unit (14) sets the
light irradiation intensity per unit time to a first intensity, so that the sample (8) emits secondary charge particles in a first emission quantity corresponding to the first intensity, and then causes the
image processing unit to produce an observation image, and The light
intensity control unit (14) adjusts the
light irradiation intensity per unit time to a second intensity that differs from the first intensity, so that the sample (8) emits secondary charge particles in a second emission quantity corresponding to the second intensity, and then causes the image
processing unit to produce an observation image, wherein the light
intensity control unit (14) determines the first intensity and the second intensity according to the correspondence described in the correspondence data.