Patent ID: 7829870

Claim:
An apparatus for in-situ specimen preparation, comprising: a vacuum chamber for enclosing a specimen; and an ion beam device, wherein the ion beam device is connected to the vacuum chamber, the ion beam device comprising: a liquid metal alloy ion source including a first element for providing a light ion species with a mass of 10 g/mol to 60 g/mol and a second element for providing a heavy ion species with a mass of 150 g/mol or higher; a mass separator for selectively separating an ion beam into a first beam comprising the light ion species and a second beam comprising the heavy ion specie; and a focusing element for focusing either the first beam or the second beam on the specimen; a specimen-beam-tilt unit for tilting the first beam or the second beam with respect to the specimen; and an electron beam device, wherein the electron beam device is connected to the vacuum chamber.