FIB/SEM for Soft Matter and Life Sciences : A Complementary Morphological Study
✍ Scribed by Marziale Milani; Simone Magni
- Book ID
- 102866569
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2006
- Weight
- 1022 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1439-4243
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Focused Ion Beams (FIBs) provide a sharp ion cross-sectioning tool for soft or biological materials to etch, mill and image the sample surface and the exposed sections. The area of FIB sectioning/imaging of biomaterials is one that is sadly neglected, compared with studies on inorganic materials. In combination with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), FIB makes electron and ion microscopy available at the same time, providing complementary morphological information and, sometimes, facing charge problems.
ing from micrometer to nanometer scale, another problem in facing soft and biological materials is their poor conductivity; it requires further care in fixation and metallisation. Anyway, these time consuming preparations may themselves introduce artefacts, thus limiting sample analysis. Modern FIB/SEM systems try to facilitate preparation procedures by coupling the ion column with a FEGSEM (ideal for low voltage imaging [6]) or an Environmental SEM (to image untreated strongly charging specimens [7]). Furthermore, one can perform a FIB-assisted metal layer deposition with a specific thickness to reduce charging associated to ion and electron beam operations. The deposited layer is also helpful to protect the top part of the specimen during milling. secondary electrons and from secondary ions with an ad hoc detector, allowing what can be thought of as a twowavelength imaging.