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PIPS II Owners Manual and Users Guide
Use the sample recipe below as a starting guide to choosing PIPS II milling
parameters. This recipe works best for a silicon-based sample of bulk thickness
60 µm top side dimpled to 5 µm with a 15 mm wheel. Note that because the
milling rates have increased dramatically at low energy compared to the
original PIPS, Gatan recommends obtaining a perforation at low energy (e.g.
0.5 keV) for samples that exhibit interference fringes.
Table 5 PIPS II milling parameters
Gun KeV
Gun angle
Beam
Modulation
Rotation Time
4.0 5°
Top
3° Bottom
Dual Beam
3 rpm
Until clearly defined
fringes appear
2.5 4°
Top
2° Bottom
Dual Beam
3 rpm
Until
inner-most
fringe changes color
0.5 4°
Top
2° Bottom
Dual Beam
3 rpm
Until
perforation
reaches area of
interest
