The Power and Limitation of Ion Beam Imaging in Focused Ion Beam Microscopes

In the past three decades, the focused ion beam microscope has evolved from a semiconductor production tool into an advanced microstructure characterization instrument. The FIB microscopes have changed from the first generation of single ion beam systems to multi-beam systems that often couple with various types of analytical instruments. However, the powerful FIB systems are often recognized as advanced TEM specimen preparation machines due to their superior capability of making high quality, site-specific thin foils from almost any types of materials and any geometry. This is a vast under usage of such powerful systems. Most users do not take advantage of the primary ion beam imaging capability that can provide high-quality images to reveal important microstructure features. In this paper, the author uses practical examples to demonstrate the power of ion beam imaging.