A Plan-view TEM Specimen Preparation Method Using Focused Ion Beam

Improved focused ion beam target preparation of (S)TEM specimen--a method for obtaining ultrathin lamellae.

Specimen quality is vital to (scanning) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations. In particular, thin specimens are required to obtain excellent high-resolution TEM images. Conventional focused ion beam (FIB) preparation methods cannot be employed to reliably create high quality specimens much thinner than 20 nm. We have developed a method for in situ target preparation of ultrathi...

A Focused Ion Beam Specimen Preparation Method to Minimize Gallium Ion Concentration in Copper Atom-Probe Tomography Specimen Tips

Atom-probe tomography (APT) is a quantitative technique that permits three-dimensional (3-D) spectroscopic characterization of interfaces and other nanometer-scale features within a material. Specimens for atom-probe tomography (APT) analysis of semiconductor devices and nanostructured materials are typically fabricated employing a focused ion beam (FIB) instrument [1 3] or a dual-beam FIB inst...

Focused high- and low-energy ion milling for TEM specimen preparation

TEM specimen preparation techniques

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful tool for the investigation of the microstructure of materials, providing crystallographic information and composition at the nanometer scale. For such studies, samples should be transparent to the electron beam. In this review, TEM sample preparation techniques for different classes of materials, such as metals and alloys, multilayered coatin...

Cryo-electron Microscopy Specimen Preparation By Means Of a Focused Ion Beam

Here we present a protocol used to prepare cryo-TEM samples of Aspergillus niger spores, but which can easily be adapted for any number of microorganisms or solutions. We make use of a custom built cryo-transfer station and a modified cryo-SEM preparation chamber. The spores are taken from a culture, plunge-frozen in a liquid nitrogen slush and observed in the cryo-SEM to select a region of int...