Using the Focused Ion Beam to Perform Serial Sectioning of Micron-Sized Particles for Coordinated Nanoscale Analysis

Standard Focused Ion Beam (FIB) lift-out methods for production of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) thin sections destroy many cubic microns of material in order to produce a single 100-nm thick section. Microtome sectioning, in contrast, allows serial sectioning of adjacent multiple 100-nm sections, without loss of materials between sections, but lacks site specificity. In order to maximize the yield of analyzable material in thin section form from valuableone-of-a kind- micron-sized samples, we have developed serial sectioning techniques that combine FIB lift-out with microtomy. In this paper, we show an example of sectioning and subsequent TEM analysis of simulated cometary residues which resemble impact craters collected during the NASA Stardust Mission. These techniques may be generalized to any one-of-a-kind sample for which preserving analyzable volume is critical, such as forensic analysis of dust particles, failure analysis and electronic device sectioning.