FEI has released the Versa 3D Dualbeam system, which enables high-resolution 3D imaging and analysis on a range of sample types.
The Versa 3D's configurable platform allows customers to adapt the system's capabilities to their specific requirements.
Versa 3D is available with either high-vacuum-only or high- and low-vacuum electron imaging hardware.
Low-vacuum electron imaging capabilities allow the system to accommodate contaminating or outgassing samples that are incompatible with high-vacuum operation.
Low vacuum also provides the ability to compensate for charge build-up in non-conductive samples, even at the high currents required for analysis techniques, such as energy dispersive (X-ray) spectroscopy (EDS) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD).
The Versa 3D combines FEI's Schottky field emission electron beam and high-throughput ion beam technologies in a configurable Dualbeam system, enabling 3D characterisation and analysis, site-specific sample modification and advanced sample preparation for transmission electron microscopes (TEMs) and atom probes.
The platform can also be configured with the company's low-vacuum capabilities and even environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) for in-situ analysis.
Advanced scanning electron microscopy (SEM) scanning and FIB patterning are said to yield powerful imaging and milling performance.
New features, such as FEI's Smartscan and Drift Corrected Frame Integration (DCFI), facilitate the electron beam imaging of sample types with a range of properties.
Advanced backscattered electron, secondary electron and ion detectors collect a variety of topographic, elemental and compositional information from every angle.
According to the company, the combination of the latest Autoslice and View G3 software option, the electron imaging hardware and the high-throughput ion column enables researchers to capitalise on the charge balancing capabilities of ions and electrons.
Milling (with positive ions) and imaging or drift suppression (with electrons) enable the automation of the 3D serial slicing, imaging and analysis of both electrically conductive and non-conductive samples.
When combined with EDS or EBSD, EDS3 and EBS3 software options can also be used to reconstruct elemental maps or crystallographic orientation data in 3D.
The Versa 3D addresses the needs of applications in materials research, life sciences, electronics and geosciences.
