3D Nano-characterisation of materials by FIB-SEI/EDS tomography

Abstract

Focus ion beam-tomography is able to characterize materials from > 10 nm. The 3D-volumes are generated from serial FIB cross-sections, which can be imaged by the different modes of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) like secondary electrons (SE), energy- dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis (EDS), etc. This article reports on different examples of FIB-tomography in Al-alloys and porous Ni sample, as well as on the different methods for an adequate sectioning and imaging of the serial cross sections.