Abstract Recent developments in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation have greatly reduced the time and cost for preparing thin samples. In this paper, a method is demonstrated for viewing thin samples in transmission in an unmodified scanning electron microscope (SEM) using an easily constructed sample holder. Although not a substitute for true TEM analysis, this method allows for spatial resolution that is superior to typical SEM imaging and provides image contrast from material structure that is typical of TEM images. Furthermore, the method can produce extremely high resolution x-ray maps that are typically produced only by scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) systems.