Comparison between FIB and Ar (argon) ion milling specimen preparations

Comparison between FIB and Ar (argon) Ion Milling Specimen Preparations
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Table 1280. Comparison between FIB and Ar (argon) milling specimen preparations.

	FIB technique	Ar⁺ ion milling
Milling localization below micron scale	Good	Poor
Milling rate	Fast	Slow
Surface damage	Much more (see Figure 1280), and thus FIB is never used to clean the surface damage created by Ar⁺ ion milling in any specimens	Much less (see Figure 1280), and thus Ar⁺ ion milling is often used to clean the surface damage created by FIB technique in many specimens

Figure 1280 shows TEM images from two steel specimens which were generated by FIB technique and Ar⁺ ion milling, respectively. It is very clear that the FIB-prepared specimen received severe surface damage, but the specimen from Ar⁺ ion milling is much cleaner.


(a)	(b)

Figure 1280. TEM images from steel specimens prepared by: (a) FIB technique and (b) Ar⁺ ion milling. [1]

[1] J. Scott, F. T. Docherty, M. MacKenzie, W. Smith, B. Miller, C. L. Collins and A. J. Craven, Sample preparation for nanoanalytical electron microscopy using the FIB lift-out method and low energy ion milling, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 26, 223 (2006).

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