Farr Nicholas T H, Pasniewski Maciej, de Marco Alex
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK.
Insigneo Institute for In Silico Medicine, The Pam Liversidge Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jul 30;15(15):3247. doi: 10.3390/polym15153247.
The development of Focused Ion Beam-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM) systems has provided significant advances in the processing and characterization of polymers. A fundamental understanding of ion-sample interactions is still missing despite FIB-SEM being routinely applied in microstructural analyses of polymers. This study applies Secondary Electron Hyperspectral Imaging to reveal oxygen and xenon plasma FIB interactions on the surface of a polymer (in this instance, polypropylene). Secondary Electron Hyperspectral Imaging (SEHI) is a technique housed within the SEM chamber that exhibits multiscale surface sensitivity with a high spatial resolution and the ability to identify carbon bonding present using low beam energies without requiring an Ultra High Vacuum (UHV). SEHI is made possible through the use of through-the-lens detectors (TLDs) to provide a low-pass SE collection of low primary electron beam energies and currents. SE images acquired over the same region of interest from different energy ranges are plotted to produce an SE spectrum. The data provided in this study provide evidence of SEHI's ability to be a valuable tool in the characterization of polymer surfaces post-PFIB etching, allowing for insights into both tailoring polymer processing FIB parameters and SEHI's ability to be used to monitor serial FIB polymer surfaces in situ.
聚焦离子束扫描电子显微镜（FIB-SEM）系统的发展为聚合物的加工和表征带来了重大进展。尽管FIB-SEM在聚合物微观结构分析中经常使用，但对离子与样品相互作用的基本理解仍然欠缺。本研究应用二次电子高光谱成像来揭示聚合物（在本实例中为聚丙烯）表面上的氧等离子体和氙等离子体FIB相互作用。二次电子高光谱成像（SEHI）是一种置于扫描电子显微镜腔室内的技术，它具有多尺度表面灵敏度、高空间分辨率，并且能够在不要求超高真空（UHV）的情况下使用低束流能量识别存在的碳键。通过使用穿透镜探测器（TLD）来提供低一次电子束能量和电流的低通二次电子收集，使得SEHI成为可能。绘制从不同能量范围在同一感兴趣区域采集的二次电子图像以生成二次电子光谱。本研究提供的数据证明了SEHI作为一种有价值工具用于表征聚合物表面PFIB蚀刻后的能力，这有助于深入了解定制聚合物加工FIB参数以及SEHI用于原位监测连续FIB聚合物表面的能力。
