•Compositional contrast of annular backscattered electron detectors is increased.•The method is based on physical properties of the backscattered electron signal.•Analytical and semi-empirical algorithms for realizations are provided.•The proposed method is robust with respect to artifacts. A method for increasing compositional or material contrast of a standard semiconductor BSE detector in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) by compensation of the topographic contrast component is proposed. Compensation is based on the physical properties of backscattered electron emission and topography information of the specimen's surface. Three analytical and semi-empirical compensation algorithms employing different physical models and approximations are implemented and compared to conventional BSE signals to show the effectivity of the proposed compensation approach.