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As part of a "Wright Center for
Innovation," SCSAM has installed a dual
beam FIB (focused ion beam) system of the
type xT Nova Nanolab 200 (FEI). In addition
to the focused ion beam, which is used for
machining thin foils suitable for TEM
directly out of the specimen surface, this
instrument includes a complete and
very-high-quality scanning electron
microscope. This system has the advantage
that the specimen can be observed by
(high-resolution) SEM while being milled by
the ion beam. Compared to previous FEI FIB
systems, the Nova comes with a newly
designed computer interface and software
that enables entirely automated milling.
Moreover, the Nova includes a newly
designed internal "lift-out-" system for
transferring the thin film generated by
ion-beam milling onto a special kind of Cu
support grid, which can then be loaded into
the specimen holder of a TEM.
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