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Low-Energy Focused Ion Beam Milling Provides Reduced Damage During TEM Sample Preparation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2009

Laurent Roussel
Affiliation:
Product Marketing Manager SEM & DualBeam, FEI, Hillsboro, OR, 97124, Email: [email protected]

Extract

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The combined focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), known as the DualBeam, is well-known for its unique ability to produce site-specific thin samples starting from bulk and then attaching the section to a transmission electron microscope (TEM) grid, all in-situ. It has been reported that producing a thin sample using a 30 kV gallium FIB creates surface damage several tens of nanometers deep. However, recent DualBeam technology improvements now enable the FIB to produce thin samples with a thickness well below 50 nanometers and deliver a tightly focused ion beam at an energy of 2 kV and below, which dramatically reduces the damage depth to as low as 1 to 2 nanometers in typical materials, such as silicon.

Type
Materials Applications
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2009