Electron microscopy
 
Argon Milling for TEM Specimen Preparation
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Ar milling can be used to produce clean, wide viewing areas on TEM specimen and thin the specimen to electron transparency. Note that Ar milling can also be used to clean TEM specimens after FIB- and electropolishing-preparations.

Table 1281. Examples of argon (Ar) milling for TEM specimen preparation.

Materials Voltage Tilt angle Milling system Milling step Reference
GaAs and Si 200-400 V 4 ° GentleMill Final cleaning [1]
GaAs and Si 1.5 kV 8 ° GentleMill Coarse milling [1]
Steels 4 kV 4 ° Gatan model 691 PIPS Coarse milling [1]
Steels 2 kV 3 ° Gatan model 691 PIPS Final cleaning of FIB-prepared samples [1]
GaAs and Si 500 V 15 ° GentleMill Final cleaning of FIB-prepared samples [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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