Recently, the dual beam Xe+ plasma focused ion beam (Xe+ pFIB) instrument has attracted increasing interest for site-specific transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation for a local region of interest as it shows several potential benefits compared to conventional Ga+ FIB milling. Nevertheless, challenges and questions remain especially in terms of FIB-induced artefacts, which hinder reliable S/TEM microstructural and compositional analysis. Here we examine the efficacy of using Xe+ pFIB as compared with conventional Ga+ FIB for TEM sample preparation of Al alloys. Three potential source of specimen preparation artefacts were examined, namely: 1) implantation-induced defects such as amophization, dislocations, or "bubble" formation in the near-surface region resulting from ion bombardment of the sample by the incident beam; 2) compositional artefacts due to implantation of the source ions; and 3) material redeposition due to the milling process. It is shown that Xe+ pFIB milling is able to produce improved STEM/TEM samples compared to those produced by Ga+ milling, and is therefore the preferred specimen preparation route. Strategies for minimizing the artefacts induced by Xe+ pFIB and Ga+ FIB are also proposed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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比较 Xe + pFIB 和 Ga + FIB 用于铝合金 TEM 样品制备的方法：最大限度地减少 FIB 引起的伪影

最近，双束 Xe+ 等离子体聚焦离子束 (Xe+ pFIB) 仪器引起了人们对局部感兴趣区域的定点透射电子显微镜 (TEM) 样品制备越来越多的兴趣，因为与传统 Ga+ FIB 铣削相比，它显示出多种潜在优势。然而，挑战和问题仍然存在，特别是在 FIB 引起的伪影方面，这阻碍了可靠的 S/TEM 微观结构和成分分析。在这里，我们检查了使用 Xe+ pFIB 与传统 Ga+ FIB 进行铝合金 TEM 样品制备的效果。检查了样品制备伪影的三个潜在来源，即：1）注入引起的缺陷，例如由入射束对样品进行离子轰击而导致的近表面区域的非晶化、位错或“气泡”形成；2) 由于源离子注入造成的成分假象；3) 由于铣削过程导致的材料再沉积。结果表明，与 Ga+ 铣削生产的样品相比，Xe+ pFIB 铣削能够生产出改进的 STEM/TEM 样品，因此是首选的样品制备途径。还提出了尽量减少 Xe+ pFIB 和 Ga+ FIB 引起的伪影的策略。本文受版权保护。版权所有。