I cobbled together a scene similar to the one posted, and it's really hard to
get that SEM 'look.' Even more irritating is that the indents almost always look
like bumps. I tried lights, radiosity with no lights, a radiosity 'ring' around
the object, no_shadow, etc. This is the closest I've gotten--and it still looks
somewhat ambiguous.

There's something intrinsic to electron microscope and SEM images that might
make recreating the look with a 'standard' lighting setup difficult.

Most such images appear to have 'lighting' that *surrounds* the object--except
in the front. And no shadows, in the usual meaning. They almost look like
photographic negatives. (I found one image--a really cool one of an ant--and
'inverted' it in Photoshop; the result looks like it's lit with a SINGLE light
source, shining directly from the camera position...and with a rapid fall-off of
light on all the side/slanting surfaces.) How to get the reverse of that with
'positive' lighting may not be so easy. For example, it's hard to get regular
light sources to 'fall off' in brightness in just such a way as those SEM
indents show. If the object was like an ant--in other words, a detailed 3D model
in space--then maybe a radiosity set-up might work, using a white HEMISPHERE
behind the model as the only 'light source.' But a simple planar surface--like
the OP's model--can't take advantage of that.

So my final idea was kind of a cheat: to color the planar surface with a
gradient y pigment, receding into the surface--somewhat dark at the very
surface, then immediately lighter, then falling to darkness again to the bottom
of the pits. And using two area lights to either side.

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