Focused ion beam microscopy and micromachining

The fairly recent availability of commercial focused ion beam (FIB) microscopes has led to rapid development of their applications for materials science. FIB instruments have both imaging and micromachining capabilities at the nanometer-micrometer scale; thus, a broad range of fundamental studies and technological applications have been enhanced or made possible with FIB technology. This introductory article covers the basic FIB instrument and the fundamentals of ion-solid interactions that lead to the many unique FIB capabilities as well as some of the unwanted artifacts associated with FIB instruments. The four topical articles following this introduction give overviews of specific applications of the FIB in materials science, focusing on its particular strengths as a tool for characterization and transmission electron microscopy sample preparation, as well as its potential for ion beam fabrication and prototyping.