Time-Resolved Focused Ion Beam Microscopy: Modeling, Estimation Methods, and Analyses

Focused Ion Beam Microscopy and Micromachining

The FIB Instrument The basic functions of the FIB, namely, imaging and sputtering with an ion beam, require a highly focused beam. A consistent tenet of any focused beam is that the smaller the effective source size, the more current that can be focused to a point. Unlike the broad ion beams generated from plasma sources, high-resolution ion beams are defined by the use of a field ionization so...

Focused Ion Beam Lithography

“Smart Microscopy”: Feature Based Adaptive Sampling for Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscopy

A new method for the image acquisition in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was introduced. The method used adaptively increased pixel-dwell times to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in areas of high detail. In areas of low detail, the electron dose was reduced on a per pixel basis, and a-posteriori image processing techniques were applied to remove the resulting noise. The technique wa...

Time-resolved fluorescence microscopy.

In fluorescence microscopy, the fluorescence emission can be characterised not only by intensity and position, but also by lifetime, polarization and wavelength. Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) can report on photophysical events that are difficult or impossible to observe by fluorescence intensity imaging, and time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy imaging (TR-FAIM) can measure the rotation...

Focused ion beam and scanning electron microscopy for 3D materials characterization

In this article, we review focused ion beam serial sectioning microscopy paired with analytical techniques, such as electron backscatter diffraction or x-ray energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry, to study materials chemistry and structure in three dimensions. These three-dimensional microanalytical approaches have been greatly extended due to advances in software for both microscope control and...