Improved atom probe specimen preparation by focused ion beam with the aid of multi-dimensional specimen control

Abstract

Focused ion beam lift-out has become an essential technique for fabricating small-scale specimens in atom probe tomography (APT). By using a rotatable micromanipulator, we developed methods that can precisely extract the regions of interest for APT samples with challenging-to-prepare geometries. Combining this function with pre-milling and pre-tilt operations, we prepare three typically challenging APT specimens: nanoparticles, nanowires, and thin films. This combination can effectively decrease the sample preparation time and increase the accuracy of focused ion beam lift-out specimen preparation.

Keywords

Focused-ion beam / atom probe tomography / microanalysis / nanomaterials

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