A gas injection nozzle that includes an elongated gas conduit that comprises: a first gas conduit segment configured to be coupled with a gas reservoir; a second gas conduit segment fluidly coupled to the first gas conduit segment and defining a downward curve of the elongated gas conduit; a third gas conduit segment defining an upward curve of the elongated gas conduit that extends to a sealed end and is disposed in a mirrored relationship with at least a portion of the second gas conduit; and a central gas conduit segment coupled between the second and third gas conduit segments, the central gas conduit segment having a first aperture formed in an upper surface of the central gas conduit and a second aperture, larger than the first aperture, formed in a lower surface of the central gas conduit directly across from the first aperture, wherein the elongated gas conduit has a first diameter along a portion of its length that includes at least the second, third and central gas conduit segments and wherein the central gas conduit segment includes a substantially horizontal portion that extends on each side of the first and second apertures for a distance that is at least twice the first diameter of the gas conduit.

Method and system for sample preparation includes positioning an extraneous specimen close to a target specimen in a vacuum chamber, directing a charged particle beam towards the extraneous specimen while flowing a precursor gas in the vacuum chamber, and depositing or etching on one or more surfaces of the target specimen with the assist of the precursor gas.

An ion beam deposition method includes placing a substrate into an ion beam deposition apparatus, irradiating an ion beam from an ion beam source toward a target plate, and rotating the target plate during the irradiating of the ion beam. The target plate includes a first region that includes a first material, and a second region that includes a second material different from the first material.

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.

Disclosed is a mask defect repair apparatus that is capable of performing defect repair with high accuracy without exposure of a mask to air while being moved between the mask defect repair apparatus and an inspection device. The mask defect repair apparatus emits charged particle beams with an amount of irradiation therewith which is corrected by a correction unit while supplying gas to a defect of the mask, thereby forming a deposition film.

A system and method for manufacturing a lattice structure of ionized particles on a substrate, wherein the process may be improved by controlling the number of ionized particles that are ejected from an ionizer and directed to a substrate, and wherein the ionized particles are disposed on the substrate, thereby enabling the creation of a lattice structure that may be as thin as a single layer of ionized particles.

A computer-implemented method of generating scan instructions for forming a product using additive layer manufacture as a series of layers is provided. The method comprises determining a beam acceleration voltage to be used when forming the product; for each hatch area of layers of the product, determining a respective beam current to be used when forming the hatch area and providing a respective beam current value to the hatch area description in the scan pattern instruction file; and for each line of each hatch area, determining a respective beam spot size to be used when scanning the beam along the line and providing a respective beam spot size value to the line description in the scan pattern instruction file, and determining a respective series of beam step sizes and beam step dwell times to be used when scanning the beam along the line, and providing a respective series of beam position values and beam step dwell times to the line description in the scan pattern instruction file thereby defining how the beam is to be scanned along the line. Also provided are a file of scan instructions, an additive layer manufacture apparatus, and a method of forming a product using the additive layer manufacturing apparatus.

The present invention relates to a method for examining a beam of charged particles, including the following steps: producing persistent interactions of the beam with a sample at a plurality of positions of the sample relative to the beam and deriving at least one property of the beam by analyzing the spatial distribution of the persistent interactions at the plurality of positions.

A physical analysis method, a sample for physical analysis and a preparing method thereof are provided. The preparing method of the sample for physical analysis includes: providing a sample to be inspected; and forming a contrast enhancement layer on a surface of the sample to be inspected. The contrast enhancement layer includes a plurality of first material layers and a plurality of second material layers stacked upon one another. The first material layer and the second material layer are made of different materials. Each one of the first and second material layers has a thickness that does not exceed 0.1 nm. In an image captured by an electron microscope, a difference between an average grayscale value of a surface layer image of the sample to be inspected and an average grayscale value of an image of the contrast enhancement layer is at least 50.

An apparatus and a method for measuring and monitoring the properties of a fluid, for example, pressure, temperature, and chemical properties, within a sample holder for an electron microscope. The apparatus includes at least one fiber optic sensor used for measuring temperature and/or pressure and/or pH positioned in proximity of the sample.