Quantitative in situ thickness determination of FIB TEM lamella by using STEM in a SEM
Conference paper
Abstract
One of the practical problems of preparing a FIB lamella for use in a TEM is knowing the thickness attained during the fine polishing process. A quantitative in situ method, which enables the thickness determination with accuracy in the range of some nm would therefore be very helpful. The aims of the following project are first the development of a method which enables the in situ thickness measurement of thin free supported layers and second the design of a combined STEM-UNIT which enables the use of this method for the in situ thickness measurement during the fine polishing process. It is known that the transmission T, of thin films of the mass thickness x=ρ · t (ρ is the density and t the thickness of the thin film) can be described by an exponential law [1]:
$$
T(E_0 ,\alpha ,\beta ) = \frac{{I(E_0 ,\alpha ,\beta )}}{{I_0 }} = e^{\frac{{ - x}}{{x_K (E_0 ,\alpha ,\beta )}}}
$$
Keywords
SEM STEM FIB thickness determinationReferences
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