Ga(+) Focused Ion Beam-Scanning Electron Microscopes (FIB-SEM) have revolutionised the level of microstructural information that can be recovered in 3D by block face serial section tomography (SST), as well as enabling the site-specific removal of smaller regions for subsequent transmission electron microscope (TEM) examination. However, Ga(+) FIB material removal rates limit the volumes and depths that can be probed to dimensions in the tens of microns range. Emerging Xe(+) Plasma Focused Ion Beam-Scanning Electron Microscope (PFIB-SEM) systems promise faster removal rates. Here we examine the potential of the method for large volume serial section tomography as applied to bainitic steel and WC-Co hard metals. Our studies demonstrate that with careful control of milling parameters precise automated serial sectioning can be achieved with low levels of milling artefacts at removal rates some 60× faster. Volumes that are hundreds of microns in dimension have been collected using fully automated SST routines in feasible timescales (<24h) showing good grain orientation contrast and capturing microstructural features at the tens of nanometres to the tens of microns scale. Accompanying electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) maps show high indexing rates suggesting low levels of surface damage. Further, under high current Ga(+) FIB milling WC-Co is prone to amorphisation of WC surface layers and phase transformation of the Co phase, neither of which have been observed at PFIB currents as high as 60nA at 30kV. Xe(+) PFIB dual beam microscopes promise to radically extend our capability for 3D tomography, 3D EDX, 3D EBSD as well as correlative tomography.

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Using angle-resolved photoemission and linearly polarized synchrotron radiation, we measured the electronic band structure of electronic states of CuO 2 plane materials ranging from insulators ͑Sr 2 CuO 2 Cl 2) to overdoped superconductors ͑Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8ϩx). We report three results: ͑i͒ The CuO 2 containing insulator possesses a spin-density-wave ͑SDW͒ ground state; ͑ii͒ there are precursors of the SDW state for underdoped Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8ϩx ; ͑iii͒ an extended saddle-point-type van Hove singularity is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for a high superconducting transition temperature, T c. ͓S0163-1829͑97͒50226-8͔ RAPID COMMUNICATIONS

We present the first detailed data of the momentum-resolved, temperature de-

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We have performed high energy resolution angle-resolved photoemission studies of the normal state band structure of oxygen overdoped Bi 2 Sr 2 Ca 1 Cu 2 O 8+x . We find that there is an extended saddle point singularity in the density of states along Γ −M − Z direction. The data also indicate that there is an asymmetry in the Fermi surface for both the Γ −M − Z and perpendicular directions.

High-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements were performed on single crystals of Bi 2 Sr 2 Ca 1 Cu 2 O 8+ δ with different oxygen stoichiometries. The data establish that the gap anisotropy (ratio of the gap along Γ-M to the gap along Γ-X) can be reversibly changed from ∼20:1 (optimal or underdoped) to ∼2:1 (overdoped). Differences in sample doping explain the conflicting reports on gap anisotropy in the literature. Possible effects of this change in gap anisotropy on the symmetry of the order parameter are discussed. There remains some ambiguity as to the relation between the order parameter and doping.

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