LAUSR

Remarkable advances have been made in dual-beam focused ion beam – scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) technologies over the last 20 years. Such FIB-SEMs can now be used to perform a wide variety of microstructural characterization and microfabrication experiments. The incorporation of X-ray spectrometry, electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) and in situ lift out capabilities into dual-beam FIB-SEMs make them one of the most powerful instruments for the analysis of microstructure in materials. The vast majority of these instruments are equipped with Ga liquid metal ion sources, and the latest generation Ga FIB columns are extremely powerful and versatile. The main drawbacks of Ga FIB are the limits on the maximum material removal rate, issues with amorphization for certain types of sample, and the possibility of chemical reactions between Ga and the specimen. Such issues cause particular problems for metallurgical samples, because some metals interact strongly with Ga and the important processes often occur on length scales that are not accessible by Ga FIB. More recently, dual-beam FIB-SEMs with inductively-coupled Xe plasma ion sources have been developed. Such plasma FIB (PFIB) columns give much higher material removal rates, and the Xe ions produce very different types of damage, which makes PFIB instruments much more suitable for certain types of sample [1,2].