Prakt. Met. Sonderband 46 (2014) 33 
(Fig. 6): The lamella is mounted under an axial inclination of 45° with respect to the non- 
tilted sample stage in a holder that again allows for repeatable 90° sample rotation around 
four steps (see the length axis (a). In a first step, coarse slots are cut into the 45° inclined lamella (b). Next 
re rough cut into the sample is re-mounted after 90° axial rotation and the perpendicular slots are cut (c). 
ted by 90° along The remnant tips of the initial lamella that were hidden by the coarse structured 
equent step, the compression specimens are subsequently removed in a top down milling step (d). To this 
ioother polished purpose, the sample is mounted with the specimens’ compression direction parallel to the 
 (d). Finally, the ion beam. After this, the sample is put back in the previous position and the two 
1g to the desired perpendicular sample sides are subsequently finished by fine polishing as outlined before 
(e, f). 
um 
Fig. 6: Sequential steps to prepare a series of compression samples by FIB along an 
lectrochemically electrochemically prepared lamella. 
Notably, the fact that three corners of a square cross-section specimen are visible during 
d that the needle in situ deformation rather than only two for the case of un-rotated pillars increases the 
epeated rotation information that can be gained during such experiments. 
men is fabricated 
om all directions 
scatter diffraction 3. APPLICATIONS 
uch samples can 
Lastly, we would like to show some applications of the introduced techniques in order to 
give an idea of what is possible within few hours and using rather simple techniques. Fig. 
7a shows a broad ion beam thinned piece of single crystal W [23], where the extended 
dimensions of the thinned area are clearly visible. The preparation of a free-standing 
lamella with a thin film on top of a Si substrate [25] is shown in Fig. 7b. Within this thin 
a well controlled lamella, a bending beam (Fig. 7c) is FIB fabricated to measure the stresses in the thin film 
jed to place the from the resulting beam curvature [25, 34]. Fig. 7d shows a series of lithographically 
7]. This would be prepared Cu stencil masks [14] placed on top of an Al lamella, while Fig. 7e and f present 
n one to another samples fabricated by this mask aided ion milling approach from rolled 16 pm thick Cu foil 
ps are as follows and a 20 pm thick PET film, respectively. These samples can subsequently be tested 
under the optical microscope or in situ in the scanning electron microscope without 
requirement for further FIB machining or polishing. At last, Fig. 7g presents a series of 
3