A scanning electron microscope has an electron source for illuminating a primary electron beam on a specimen wafer, an accelerating electrode, a condenser lens, a deflector, an objective lens, a detector for acquiring a digital image by sampling a signal of emissive electrons generated from the specimen wafer, a digitizing means, an image memory for storing, displaying or processing the acquired digital image, an input/output unit, an image creation unit and an image processor. The scanning electron microscope is provided with a sampling unit for sampling the emissive electron signal at intervals each smaller than the pixel size of the digital image to be stored, displayed or processed and an image creation process means for enlarging the pixel size on the basis of the sampled emissive electron signal to create a digital image.