Introduction to Focused Ion Beams

The focused ion beam (FIB) instrument has experienced an intensive period of maturation since its inception. Numerous new techniques and applications have been realized, and over the past few years, the FIB has gained acceptance as more than just an expensive sample preparation tool. It has taken its place among the suite of other instruments commonly available in analytical and forensic laboratories, universities, geological, medical and biological research institutions, and manufacturing plants. The FIB has also been used to prepare samples for numerous other analytical techniques, and offers a wide range of other capabilities. While the mainstream of FIB usage remains within the semiconductor industry, FIB usage has expanded to applications in metallurgy, ceramics, composites, polymers, geology, art, biology, pharmaceuticals, forensics, and other disciplines. New applications of FIB and dual platform instrumentation are constantly being developed for materials characterization and nanotechnology.