Downstream Plasma Technology for Cleaning TEM Samples on Carbon Films

An apparatus for plasma cleaning and storage of transmission electron microscopy specimens and specimen holders

“…Si contamination was also removed to some extent (as shown in Figure 7a), which may be attributed to the aggregation of C and Si on the sample surface. A similar case of decreased Si contamination during plasma cleaning was reported by Fu et al (2014).…”

“…Compared with some commercial apparatus (such as Gatan 950 and 955, Fischione 1070), the design and assembly of vacuum joints with various components in the proposed apparatus can achieve multiple functions in one setup (as shown in Figures 2 and 4) (Fu et al, 2014; Goh et al, 2020; Hata et al, 2006). The designed holder storage station is suitable for ergonomics, because it can be safely operated in front of the apparatus (Figure 2b).…”

“…The plasma cleaning system in this study is an inductively coupled plasma cleaner that uses an oscillating electromagnetic field to ionize the gas into plasmas consisting of ions, electrons, and neutral free radicals (Fischione et al, 1997; Fu et al, 2014). Free radicals can react with hydrocarbons on the specimen surface, thereby removing contaminations (Donnelly & Kornblit, 2013; Fischione et al, 1997; Fu et al, 2014; Lieberman & Lichtenberg, 2005). Figure 1 shows the working principle of the proposed plasma cleaning system.…”

Development of Mass-controlled Ion Beam through a Vacuum Electrospray Method

“…For 92 h, the emission of the VES beam was maintained at an accelerating voltage of 12.9 kV and a frequency of 350 kHz. Surface organic contaminations were eliminated by preprocessing treatments using the GV10x plasma cleaning process (ibss Group), which could clean the plasma source of three plasma species (ions, radicals, and electrons) [19,20]. The cleaned sample was introduced to the time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) chamber (nanoTOF II, ULVAC-PHI).…”