32 Prakt. Met. Sonderband 46 (2014) 
2.3.1 SAMPLES ON A NEELDE (Fig. 6): The 
tilted sample : 
Cutting of a specimen on top of a needie [19] is performed essentially in four steps (see the length axis 
Fig. 5). First, the apex of the needle is removed and two parallel sides are rough cut into the sample is 
the tip using ion currents in the order of 1 nA (b). Next, the sample is rotated by 90° along The remnant 
the wire axis and the perpendicular sides are coarse cut (c). In the subsequent step, the compression 
milling current is reduced to about 100 pA, giving less-damaged, smoother polished purpose, the : 
surfaces, and the final sample geometry is milled on the latter two sides (d). Finally, the ion beam. A 
sample is rotated back by 90° and the first two sides are finished according to the desired perpendicular 
geometry (e). (e, f). 
Fig. 6: Sea 
Fig. 5: Stepwise FIB fabrication of a miniaturized tensile sample from an electrochemically 
etched tip (after [19]). 
Notably, the f: 
To avoid angular errors during the 90° rotation procedures, it is suggested that the needle in situ deform: 
is fixed into a block with perpendicular side planes that eases the repeated rotation information th 
operation. A drawback of this needle approach is that only a single specimen is fabricated 
at a time. On the other hand, this single specimen is easily accessible from all directions 
for testing and analysis, shadowing during, for example, electron back scatter diffraction 3. APPLIC? 
analysis [32] is easily avoided. Moreover, due to the needle approach, such samples can 
readily be used for atom probe tomography after deformation [33]. Lastly, we wa 
give an idea c 
7a shows a kt 
2.3.2 SAMPLES ON A WEDGE dimensions o 
lamella with & 
In order to place several samples along a lamella but still enabling a well controlled lamella, a ber 
geometry and free of taper over the sample height, it is recommended to place the from the rest 
samples at a rotation of 45° with respect to the parallel lamella side [17]. This would be prepared Cu ¢ 
very difficult for un-rotated samples, as they block the view of sight from one to another samples fabri 
along the direction parallel to the lamella. The FIB based fabrication steps are as follows and a 20 um 
under the op 
requirement f 
A