English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

The rise of nanotechnology has created an ever-increasing need to probestructures on the atomic scale, to which transmission electron microscopy haslargely been the answer. Currently, the only way to efficiently thin arbitrarybulk samples into thin lamellae in preparation for this technique is to use afocused ion beam (FIB). Unfortunately, the established FIB thinning method islimited to producing samples of thickness above ~20 nm. Using atomisticsimulations alongside experiments, we show that this is due to effects fromfinite ion beam sharpness at low milling energies combined with atomic-scaleeffects at high energies which lead to shrinkage of the lamella. Specifically,we show that attaining thickness below 26 nm using a milling energy of 30 keVis fundamentally prevented by atomistic effects at the top edge of the lamella.Our results also explain the success of a recently proposed alternative FIBthinning method, which is free of the limitations of the conventional approachdue to the absence of these physical processes.

Atomic-scale effects behind structural instabilities in Si lamellae during ion beam thinning