Here we describe the first automated fully integrated in-microscope broad ion beam (BIB) system. Ar+-BIB has several advantages over Ga+ focused ion beam (FIB) and Xe+ plasma-FIB (PFIB) methods inducing less beam damage, especially for ion beam sensitive materials. It can mill areas several orders of magnitude larger (up to millimetre scale), and is not confined to the edge of the sample with associated curtaining issues. BIB is shown to have sputter rates up to five times higher than comparable FIB techniques. This new coupled BIB-SEM system (commercial name 'iPrep™II') enables in-microscope surface polishing to remove contaminants or damage for two dimensional (2D) imaging, as well as automated serial section tomography (SST) by milling and imaging hundreds of slices, cost and time efficiently. The milled slice thickness can be controlled from a few nanometers up to a micrometre. A novel sample transfer, handling and interlock system allows automated and sequential BIB polishing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analysis by secondary electron (SE) imaging, electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) for 3D microstructure analysis. Furthermore, insulating surfaces can be sputter coated after milling each slice to reduce charging during SEM analysis. The performance of the instrument is demonstrated through a series of case studies across the materials, earth and life sciences exploiting the imaging, crystallographic and chemical mapping capabilities. These include the study of butterfly defects in bearing steels, meta-stable intermetallic phases in bronze bearings, shale gas rock, aluminium plasma electrolytic oxide (PEO) coatings as well as liver and mouse brain tissues.

中文翻译：

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用于抛光和三维 (3D) 连续断层扫描 (SST) 的耦合宽离子束扫描电子显微镜 (BIB-SEM)

在这里，我们描述了第一个自动完全集成的显微镜内宽离子束 (BIB) 系统。与 Ga+ 聚焦离子束 (FIB) 和 Xe+ 等离子体-FIB (PFIB) 方法相比，Ar+-BIB 具有多种优势，可减少束损伤，尤其是对于离子束敏感材料。它可以研磨大几个数量级的区域（高达毫米级），并且不限于具有相关窗帘问题的样品边缘。BIB 的溅射速率比同类 FIB 技术高出五倍。这种新的耦合 BIB-SEM 系统（商业名称“iPrep™II”）能够在显微镜下进行表面抛光，以去除二维 (2D) 成像的污染物或损坏，以及通过铣削和成像数百个自动连续切片断层扫描 (SST)切片，成本和时间有效。铣削切片的厚度可以控制在几纳米到微米之间。新型样品转移、处理和互锁系统允许自动和顺序 BIB 抛光、扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 和二次电子 (SE) 成像分析、电子背散射衍射 (EBSD) 和能量色散光谱 (EDS) 进行 3D 微观结构分析. 此外，绝缘表面可以在铣削每个切片后溅射涂层，以减少 SEM 分析过程中的充电。该仪器的性能通过一系列跨越材料、地球和生命科学的案例研究来证明，这些案例研究利用了成像、晶体学和化学绘图功能。这些包括研究轴承钢中的蝴蝶缺陷、青铜轴承中的亚稳定金属间相、页岩气、