IPrep – Automated Serial-Section Broad-Ion-Beam Tomography

Tomographic reconstruction of a wide range of materials and biological samples can be accomplished via serial-section broad-ion-beam tomography (SSBIB) – alternately ion-polishing away material and imaging the remaining polished surface with optical or scanning electron microscopy (SEM) [1]. Under computer control it is practical to acquire 2-D images of hundreds of sections without user intervention and assemble them for 3-D visualization and measurements [2,3]. In general, the resulting 3-D images permit significantly better understanding of the structure of complex systems than would be possible with a few strategically acquired 2-D images acquired at various depths. Herein we report on the IPrep II tool and what we believe is the first general implementation of the SSBIB technique.