In advanced materials research, atom probe tomography (APT) enables near-atomic-scale 3D compositional analysis of metals, alloys, semiconductors, and other complex materials, but it requires extremely sharp, site-specific needle specimens with the region of interest positioned very close to the tip apex. Preparing such specimens remains challenging because APT is destructive, often requires multiple attempts to capture the desired feature, and demands both high precision and high throughput. Conventional Ga+ FIB-SEM systems offer excellent milling accuracy but can be slow for preparing larger sample batches and may introduce ion-beam-related artifacts, while Xe plasma FIB systems enable faster, cleaner material removal but have traditionally not matched the resolution of Ga⁺ FIB for the most precise APT specimen preparation.
Discover how Tescan AMBER X™ 2 with Mistral™ Xe plasma FIB column overcomes APT specimen-preparation bottlenecks by combining fast, clean Xe FIB milling with Ga+ FIB-like precision for faster, site-specific preparation of high-quality APT specimens.
