Focused Ion Beam Tomography

Abstract

To study the fundamental effect of shape and morphology of any material on its properties, it is very essential to know and study its morphology. Focused ion beam (FIB) tomography is a 3D chemical and structural relationship studying technique. The instrumentation of FIB looks like that of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), but there is a major difference in the beam used for scanning. For SEM, a beam of electrons is used with scanning medium whereas in FIB, a much focused beam of ions is used for scanning. FIB can be used for lithography and ablation purposes, but due to advancements and high-energy focused beam, it is nowadays being used as a tomographic technique. Tomography is defined as imaging by sectoring or cross-sectioning any desired area. The hyphenation of FIB with energydispersive spectrometry or secondary ion mass spectrometry can give us elemental analysis with very high-resolution 3D images for a sample. This technique contributes to acquaintance of qualitative and quantitative analyses, 3D volume creations, and image processing. In this chapter, we will discuss the advancements in FIB instrumentation and its use as 3D imaging tool for different samples ranging from nanometer (nm)-sized materials to micrometer (μm)-sized biological samples.

Magnetic Sector Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry on FIB-SEM Instruments for Nanoscale Chemical Imaging

“…The well-established technique for compositional analysis deployed on such instruments is energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). − Nevertheless, EDX is not able to distinguish between isotopes or detect trace elements (poor detection limit of ∼1000 ppm). Furthermore, in the low Z-element range (below boron), the detection of hydrogen is impossible, and the detection of Li very challenging. , …”