The objective of the present invention is to provide an ion beam device capable of forming a nanopyramid stably having one atom at the front end of an emitter tip even when the cooling temperature is lowered in order to observe a sample with a high signal-to-noise ratio. In the present invention, the ion beam device, wherein an ion beam generated from an electric field-ionized gas ion source is irradiated onto the sample to observe or process the sample, holds the temperature of the emitter tip at a second temperature higher than a first temperature for generating the ion beam and lower than room temperature, sets the extraction voltage to a second voltage higher than the first voltage used when generating the ion beam, and causes field evaporation of atoms at the front end of the emitter tip, when forming the nanopyramid having one atom at the front end of the emitter tip.

At timing t0, a brake gas (raw material gas) starts to be supplied to an ion beam generator, and the brake gas is fed into a turbo molecular pump. After timing t1, a vent valve is opened intermittently to feed atmospheric air into the turbo molecular pump. The brake gas may be different from the raw material gas. The brake gas is supplied using a gas supply system.

A gas field ionization source for forming an electric field for ionizing gas comprises: an emitter tip having a tip end; an extraction electrode facing the emitter tip and having an aperture at a position distant therefrom; a gas supply means for supplying the gas in the vicinity of the emitter tip; a vacuum partition made of a metal having a hole; and a high voltage power source for applying voltage between the emitter tip and the extraction electrode. The hole is constructed so that the tip end of the emitter tip can pass therethrough and the vacuum partition has a micro protrusion, around the hole, protruding toward a side of the extraction electrode.

The invention relates to a method, a device and a system for the treatment of biological frozen samples using plasma focused ion beams (FIB). The samples can then be used for mass spectrometry (MS), genomics, such as gene sequencing analysis or next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis, and proteomics. The present invention particularly relates to a method of treatment of at least one biological sample. This method is particularly used for high performance microscopy, proteomics analytics, sequencing, such as NGS etc. According to the present invention the method comprises the steps of providing at least one biological sample in frozen form. The milling treats at least one part of the sample by a plasma ion beam comprising at least one of an O.sup.+ and/or a Xe.sup.+ plasma.

A micro-tooling device, such as, for example, a scanning electron microscope or a focused-ion beam microscope, provides images. A first machine-learning algorithm and a second machine-learning algorithm are sequentially coupled. The first machine-learning algorithm determines a progress along a predefined workflow based on feature recognition in images associated with the workflow. The second machine-learning algorithm predicts settings of operational parameters of the micro-tooling device in accordance with the progress along the predefined workflow.

A gas ion gun includes an anode electrode to remove electrons from a gas in order to create gas ions. The anode electrode includes a wire made of an electrical conductive material or of a semiconductor material, the wire extending along a longitudinal axis from a proximal end to a flattened distal end. The anode electrode further includes a crystal particle directly deposited on the flattened distal end, the electrical conductivity of the crystal particle being ten times smaller than the electrical conductivity of the wire.

An ion source has an arc chamber having first and second ends and an aperture plate to enclose a chamber volume. An extraction aperture is disposed between the first and second ends. A cathode is near the first end of the arc chamber, and a repeller is near the second end. A generally U-shaped first bias electrode is on a first side of the extraction aperture within the chamber volume. A generally U-shaped second bias electrode is on a second side of the extraction aperture within the chamber volume, where the first and second bias electrodes are separated by a first distance proximate to the extraction aperture and a second distance distal from the extraction aperture. An electrode power supply provides a first and second positive voltage to the first and second bias electrodes, where the first and second positive voltages differ by a predetermined bias differential.

An object of the invention is to provide an ion beam device that can measure structures existing at different positions in a thickness direction of a sample. The ion beam device according to the invention irradiates a sample with an ion beam obtained by ionizing elements contained in a gas. After obtaining a first observation image of a first shape of a first region using a first ion beam, the ion beam device processes a hole in a second region of the sample using a second ion beam, and uses the first ion beam on the processed hole to obtain a second observation image of a second shape of the second region. By comparing the first observation image and the second observation image, a relative positional relation between the first shape and the second shape is obtained (refer to FIG. 7C).

A terminal for an ion implantation system is provided, wherein the terminal has a terminal housing for supporting an ion source configured to form an ion beam. A gas box within the terminal housing has a hydrogen generator configured to produce hydrogen gas for the ion source. The gas box is electrically insulated from the terminal housing, and is further electrically coupled to the ion source. The ion source and gas box are electrically isolated from the terminal housing by a plurality of electrical insulators. A plurality of insulating standoffs electrically isolate the terminal housing from an earth ground. A terminal power supply electrically biases the terminal housing to a terminal potential with respect to the earth ground. An ion source power supply electrically biases the ion source to an ion source potential with respect to the terminal potential. Electrically conductive tubing electrically couples the gas box and ion source.

The present invention discloses a structure of an emitter electrode for enhancing ion currents, including a tip end part and a shank part. The tip end part has a pinpoint, a first diameter, and a radius of curvature. A length of the tip end part with the shank part is from the pinpoint to a first position of the shank part and a distance between the first position and the pinpoint is 300 times the first diameter. The radius of curvature of the tip end part ranges from 50 nanometers to 5 micrometers. The first diameter is 2 times the radius of curvature.