Your Top Questions Answered Broad: Ion Beam Milling with Hitachi's IM4000II & ArBlade 5000

Ideally, yes. The best milling performance is achieved when the sample surface aligns with the top of the specimen holder, so the beam strikes at the intended coincidence point. Slight variation is acceptable, but too much offset may reduce accuracy.

Broad ion beam milling is contact-free, avoiding scratches, smearing, and distortion. It's particulary valuable for sample with hard-soft interfaces, multilayers, or delicate structures. You get smooth, flat cross-sections ready for SEM, EDS, or EBSD analysis.

Absolutely. Both the IM4000II and ArBlade 5000 allow for careful, low-energy milling with features like intermittent beam pulsing and cryo cooling, making them suitable for polymers, soft composites, and thin films.

A common approach is 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off. The exact pulse duration can be customized depending on the sample type and its sensitivity to heat.

Keep it simple: ensure the sample is mounted flat, with about 100 µm of overlap beneath the mask. Good contact between the mask and the sample is key to achieving a clean, even cross-section.

Cryo cooling reduces the specimen's temperature during milling, preventing thermal damage to sensitive materials. It's especially effective when combined with low acceleration voltage or pulsed beam operation.

It's rare, but if there's a gap between the sample and the mask, milled material can re-deposit on the surface. Ensuring full contact and proper mounting eliminates this risk.

The standard holder supports cross-sections up to ~1cm wide. The wide-area holder expands that capacity to up to 4 cm, with the ability to mill multiple samples at once - ideal large-scale or comparative analysis.

Not always. Some samples can go directly into the ion milling tool. For others, a light mechanical polish may be needed to ensure flatness. The ion mill can then be used to remove residual damage and prepare the final surface.

EBSD needs a perfectly flat, deformation-free surface. Ion milling delivers just that, without introducing the mechanical strain or grain boundary distortion often seen in mechanically polished samples.

Yes. If embedded in a stable support medium (like carbon paste), the IM4000II and ArBlade 5000 can be used to mill pharmaceutical samples such as drug granules, allowing clear visualization of internal structure.