Systematic study of FIB-induced damage for the high-quality TEM sample preparation

Jun Uzuhashi; Tadakatsu Ohkubo

doi:10.1016/j.ultramic.2024.113980

Systematic study of FIB-induced damage for the high-quality TEM sample preparation

Ultramicroscopy. 2024 Aug:262:113980. doi: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2024.113980. Epub 2024 Apr 26.

Authors

Jun Uzuhashi¹, Tadakatsu Ohkubo²

Affiliations

¹ National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan. Electronic address: UZUHASHI.Jun@nims.go.jp.
² National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan.

PMID: 38701660
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2024.113980

Abstract

Nowadays, a focused Ga ion beam (FIB) with a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) system has been widely used to prepare the thin-foil sample for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or scanning TEM (STEM) observation. An establishment of a solid strategy for a reproducible high-quality sample preparation process is essential to carry out high-quality (S)TEM analysis. In this work, the FIB damages introduced by Ga⁺ beam were investigated both experimentally and stopping and range of ions in matter (SRIM) simulation for silicon (Si), gallium nitride (GaN), indium phosphide (InP), and gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors. It has been revealed that experimental investigations of the FIB-induced damage are in good agreement with SRIM simulation by defining the damage as not only "amorphization" but also "crystal distortion". The systematic evaluation of FIB damages shown in this paper should be indispensable guidance for reliable (S)TEM sample preparation.

Keywords: (scanning) transmission electron microscopy; FIB; Focused ion beam, (S)TEM.