Mayr, S.; Finizio, S.; Reuteler, J.; Stutz, S.; Dubs, C.; Weigand, M.; Hrabec, A.; Raabe, J.; Wintz, S.: Xenon Plasma Focused Ion Beam Milling for Obtaining Soft X-ray Transparent Samples. Crystals (Basel) 11 (2021), p. 546/1-7
10.3390/cryst11050546
Open Access Version
Abstract:
We employ xenon (Xe) plasma focused ion beam (PFIB) milling to obtain soft X-ray transparent windows out of bulk samples. The use of a Xe PFIB allows for the milling of thin windows (several 100 nm thick) with areas of the order of 100 µm × 100 µm into bulk substrates. In addition, we present an approach to empirically determine the transmission level of such windows during fabrication by correlating their electron and soft X-ray transparencies. We perform scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) imaging on a sample obtained by Xe PFIB milling to demonstrate the conceptual feasibility of the technique. Our thinning approach provides a fast and simplified method for facilitating soft X-ray transmission measurements of epitaxial samples and it can be applied to a variety of different sample systems and substrates that are otherwise not accessible.