Post-processing study of focused ion beam and conventional TEM specimens

Abstract text (incl. figure legends and references)

Focused ion beam sample preparation and conventional sample preparation have an important role in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). New materials (ceramics, thin films, composites, etc.) that are coming have specific properties and have to be precisely treated and usually post-treated. This poses ever-new challenges, constant adjustments, and improvements in advanced focused ion beam sample preparation, conventional sample preparation, and other TEM preparation techniques.

In this chapter, we compared two nowadays most frequently used TEM sample preparation techniques; focused ion beam sample preparation and conventional sample preparation. Post-processing treatment was performed using NanoMill® (model 1040, Fischione Instruments, Inc.). The study was created for a discussion about different procedures to achieve the best result for the TEM sample.

For the post-processing study of focused ion beam TEM specimens, we study two different approaches. The first TEM sample was pre-thinned using FEI Helios NanoLab NL650 dual-beam Focused Ion Beam (FIB) and cleaned with NanoMill. The second TEM sample was polished using FIB and then thinned and finally cleaned with NanoMill.

For the post-processing study of the conventional TEM sample, we prepared the TEM sample in two different ways. The first TEM sample was ion-milled using PIPS (Precision Ion Polishing System, Gatan Inc.) to achieve perforation and finally post-cleaned with NanoMill. The second TEM sample was dimpled down to transparent thickness (Dimple grinder, Gatan Inc.) and then thinned and finally cleaned using NanoMill.

We want to expose how important these techniques are and how high the quality of the sample that we prepared with this type of sample preparation is. Structural and analytical analysis of TEM samples were investigated on a JEOL ARM 200CF scanning transmission electron microscope with probe Cs corrector.