Features of large-scale thin foils fabrication for transmission electron microscopy by focused ion beam

Abstract

Focused ion beam (FIB) sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy is a well established technique. However there are some problems related with high-quality large-scale (over 10 um) sample preparation of thin foils. In this work we demonstrate the successful preparation of such samples on example of ferrite steel sample and present the refined lift-out preparation technique, which was applied here. All sample preparation has been carried out in conventional single-beam FIB Hitachi FB-2100 with additional low-kV Ar+ ion polishing.