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A focused ion beam (FIB) system is similar to a scanning electron microscope, except that instead of using an electron beam, a beam of ions is scanned across the sample. The ion beam is ejected from a liquid metal ion source (usually Ga), with a spot size on modern systems of <10nm. Imaging using secondary electrons provides surface information with similar resolution to that obtainable from an SEM; however the main applications arise from the use of ions as the scanned species. These include compositional imaging via secondary ions, direct etching of material in selected regions for in-situ sectioning and imaging, microfabrication, transmission electron microscopy specimen preparation, and localised deposition and implantation of metal and insulator structures. Our main application is in nanofabrication of devices. The unique combination of 10 nm resolution imaging with the ability both to remove and to deposit material in selected areas provides a means of performing materials studies or device fabrication processes which would otherwise be impossible or unreasonably time-consuming. We operate a FEI FIB 200 system funded largely by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The Department has a number of on-going programmes based round ion beam processing:

• Nanofabrication
• Electron microscopy specimen preparation
• Imaging
• Device processing (80k pdf file)
• Micromachining

Operation Information