A Tutorial of the Fib Lift-Out Technique for TEM Specimen Preparation

Abstract The focused ion beam (FIB) instrument has been developed and exploited by the microelectronics arena for specimen preparation for both scanning and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The inception [1] and subsequent development [2] of the FIB TEM lift-out (LO) technique has enabled electron transparent membranes of generally uniform thickness to be produced for TEM analysis. The primary advantage of the FIB technique is that site specific cross sections (or plan view sections [3]) may be fabricated quickly and reproducibly. The FIB LO technique has been used extensively in our laboratory for a wide range of materials [4] and biological applications [5] which are summarized in figure 1. The FIB LO method consists of milling a series of trenches around an area of interest. Then the bulk sample is tilted up to ∼60 degrees to allow the beam to impinge on the lower portion of the specimen surface so that cuts can be made along the bottom edge and the lower 2/3 of the distance up one side of the specimen.