Today's materials have increased in complexity, decreased in dimension, and contain more unique compositional mixes than ever before. The use of scanning/transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM) imaging and analysis is growing as a technique for studying industrial materials at sub-micron and nanometer scales. Extracting quality results from S/TEM samples requires highly precise sample preparation.
Focused ion beam (FIB) sample preparation, which uses a finely focused beam of gallium ions operated at low-beam currents for imaging and high-beam currents for site-specific milling, offers the greatest advantages of the sample preparation techniques in use in materials science today. FIB is inherently site-specific, delivering precise beam placement at the area of interest. In addition, FIB is able to section metals and alloys, composite materials, or organic materials rapidly, without knife mark or compression artifacts that can be a by-product of manual sectioning.
With FIB technology, you can be confident that you are isolating the precise feature of interest for subsequent study with a S/TEM, such as FEI's Titan 80-300 kV S/TEM, the world's most powerful, commercially-available transmission electron microscope (TEM).
FEI's Nova NanoLab DualBeam™ SEM/FIB system offers high throughput sample preparation, automation for creation of multiple samples, and real-time cross-section monitoring with the SEM to assure creation of the highest quality TEM samples.