Since I am hearing mixed reviews about the performance of the Argon ion milling equipment for cross sectioning, I like to start a discussion on the performance of the following listed equipment for creating good EBSD results on soft solder (Sn/In alloy)based materials. I also heard that some researchers are saying that the expected quality of the cross sections/ EBSD patterns produced by the BIB(Broad Argon ion beam equipment) equipment did not match with the data the manufacturers shows in their product brochures and case studies. Which one of the following BIB is best for producing accurate EBSD results on both soft and hard crystalline materials?
- Gatan PECS 2
- Gatan Ilion
- JEOL cross section polisher
- Leica cross section polishers
- Hitachi IM 4000 Or ARBLADE
- Advantages of cryostage
I do not have experience with all of these machines, but I think you're asking the wrong question. All these machines use an argon beam, and they all (should) allow a variation in beam energy and incidence angle (and less importantly current). The main difference between the machines are probably the range of settings available (i.e. 2-6kv energy or 4-10kv energy / current range / possible incidence angles), the shape and size of the ion beam and how the sample rotates during milling.
The important question however is: what settings should you use to obtain high quality EBSD results?
Usually low voltage (3-5kV) and low incidence angle (~0-5deg) are optimal, but this may differ with materials and machines. Additionally, I would expect that for solder alloys, cooling (i.e. cryo stage) might be important because of their low melting temperature.
In any case, for each type of sample, you probably need to optimize these settings for good EBSD quality.
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