Techniques are disclosed for stabilizing soft specimen traditionally considered too fragile for APT instruments. These specimens include biological samples, polymers and other fragile materials. For this purpose, a protective structure is disclosed that surrounds the sides of the specimen by supporting walls while only exposing the very end or terminus of the specimen to the electrostatic field of the APT instrument. The protective structure may take the form of a nanoscale conical grinder which continually machines the specimen to regenerate the terminus of the specimen in-situ. Alternately, the protective structure may take the form of a nanopipette in which the specimen is first frozen before undergoing field evaporation together with the tip of the nanopipette. Heretofore only routinely possible for rigid and hard materials, the design thus extends APT analysis to produce three-dimensional atomic-scale maps of soft specimens.

A system for preventing collisions between components in a particle beam instrument is disclosed. The system is particularly beneficial in use with instruments wherein moveable components are used within a chamber that obscures them from being viewed from outside the chamber. The system comprises: a capacitance sensor configured to monitor the capacitance between a first component and a second component of the instrument, and a proximity module configured to: derive a capacitance parameter from the monitored capacitance between the first component and the second component; and output a proximity alert signal in accordance with a comparison between the derived capacitance parameter and a predetermined capacitance parameter threshold value.

A surface preparation method (200) for a composite material (104) having an original surface (110), the material (104) comprising fibres (104a) within a matrix (104b), comprises removing (204) a surface portion of the matrix (104b) by plasma ablation so as to reveal and activate (206) a new surface (120) with at least a portion of a plurality of the fibres (104a) exposed thereon, without creating a residual heat-affected zone.

A plasma treatment apparatus is provided to suppress plasma from being generated between an antenna conductor and a lid to prevent contamination inside a vacuum chamber and to put an elongated antenna unit to practical use. The plasma treatment apparatus includes a vacuum chamber that accommodates a treatment target; an inductively coupling antenna unit that generates plasma in the vacuum chamber; and a high frequency power source that supplies a high frequency power to the inductively coupling antenna unit. The inductively coupling antenna unit has one or a plurality of antenna conductors and a lid that covers an opening formed in a wall surface of the vacuum chamber, and the one or plurality of antenna conductors are attached to the lid without a gap where discharge may occur.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a charged particle beam image acquisition apparatus includes a rectangular parallelepiped chamber where a target object is disposed; a primary electron optical column placed on an upper surface of the chamber so that a point of intersection between two diagonal lines on the upper surface of the chamber is located at a center of a horizontal section of the primary electron optical column, a primary charged particle beam optics irradiating the target object with a primary charged particle beam being disposed in the primary electron optical column; and a secondary electron optical column connected to a lower portion of the primary electron optical column, a secondary charged particle beam optics being disposed in the secondary electron optical column and a secondary charged particle beam passing through the secondary charged particle beam optics.

A system for depositing material over a sample in a localized region of the sample, the system including: a vacuum chamber; a thermal mass disposed outside the vacuum chamber; a sample support configured to hold a sample within the vacuum chamber during a sample evaluation process; a charged particle beam column configured to direct a charged particle beam into the vacuum chamber toward the sample such that the charged particle beam collides with the sample in a deposition region; a gas injection system configured to deliver a process gas to the deposition region of the sample; and a thermal isolation shield spaced apart from and disposed between the gas injection system and the sample, wherein the thermal isolation shield has a high thermal conductivity and a low emissivity and is thermally coupled to the thermal mass to transfer heat radiated from the gas injection system to the thermal mass.

A charged particle beam apparatus includes a sample chamber; a sample stage; an electron beam column for irradiating a sample with an electron beam; and a focused ion beam column for irradiating the sample with a focused ion beam. The apparatus includes a displacement member having an open/close portion displaceable between an insertion position between a beam emitting end portion of the electron beam column and the sample stage, and a withdrawal position away from the insertion position, and a contact portion provided at a contact position capable of contacting the sample before the beam emitting end portion during operation of the sample stage. A driving unit displaces the displacement member, and a conduction sensor detects whether the sample is in contact with the contact portion.

A vacuum apparatus according to an embodiment includes a chamber configured air-tightly, a vacuum pump configured to exhaust gas from the chamber, and an exhaustion structure placed between the chamber and an inlet port of the vacuum pump and having a ventilation path surrounded by a wall of the exhaustion structure. The vacuum pump exhausts gas from the chamber through the ventilation path of the exhaustion structure. A layer of thermal energy absorbing material is formed on at least part of an inner surface of the wall of the exhaustion structure to absorb energy of thermal radiation emitted from the inlet port of the vacuum pump.

A component of a plasma processing chamber having a protective liquid layer on a plasma exposed surface of the component The protective liquid layer can be replenished by supplying a liquid to a liquid channel and delivering the liquid through liquid feed passages in the component. The component can be an edge ring which surrounds a semiconductor substrate supported on a substrate support in a plasma processing apparatus wherein plasma is generated and used to process the semiconductor substrate. Alternatively, the protective liquid layer can be cured or cooled sufficiently to form a solid protective layer.

An ion implanter includes an ion source configured to generate an ion beam including an ion of a first nonradioactive nuclide, a beamline configured to support an ion beam irradiated target formed of a solid material including a second nonradioactive nuclide different from the first nonradioactive nuclide, and a controller configured to calculate at least one of an estimated radiation dosage of a radioactive ray and an estimated generation amount of a radioactive nuclide generated by a nuclear reaction between the first nonradioactive nuclide and the second nonradioactive nuclide.