title: Transmission electron microscopy and atom probe specimen preparation from mechanically alloyed powder using the focused ion-beam lift-out technique.
abstract: The preparation of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe-field ion microscopy (AP-FIM) specimens from mechanically alloyed Ti-Cu-Ni-Sn powder has been explored. Applying the focused ion beam (FIB) based in situ lift-out technique, it has been demonstrated that specimen preparation can be carried on single micrometre-sized powder particles without the use of any embedding media. Since the particles did not incorporate any micropores, as revealed by cross-sectioning, the standard procedure known for bulk samples could be simply implemented to the powder material. A sequence of rectangular cuts and annular milling was found to be a highly efficient way of forming a tip-shaped AP-FIM specimen from a square cross-section blank. A Ga level < or =1 at.% was detected if a low beam current of 10 pA was chosen for the final ion-milling stages. Implanted Ga ions were mostly confined to a zone of about 2 nm in thickness and indicated that ion-induced structural transformations were negligible.
authors.affiliation: Nano-Materials Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang, Seoul 130-650, Korea. ppchoi@kist.re.kr
authors.forename: Pyuck-Pa
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Young-Soon
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Ji-Soon
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Tala'at
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Al-Kassab