Redeposition Effects During the FIB Milling of Silicon

Abstract

The technique for the preparation of specimens for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using the focused ion beam (FIB) miller typically consists of a series of milling steps performed over both sides of an area of interest until an electron transparent membrane is achieved [1]. This process is often accompanied by the formation of damage layers on the surfaces of the specimen. The origins of any damage layer are still not clear. On one hand the process of amorphisation of the target material by the highly energetic ion beam is well known. Alternatively, other workers have reported that this damage layer can be connected with redeposition of milled material. [2,3]. in this paper we have s..