Patent ID: 8637819

Claim:
A cross-section processing and observation apparatus, comprising: a sample stage configured to place a sample thereon; a focused ion beam column configured to irradiate the sample with a focused ion beam; a charged particle detector configured to detect a charged particle emitted from the sample by irradiation of the focused ion beam; and a control portion configured to repeatedly execute a processing and observation process comprising: slice processing of slicing the sample by the focused ion beam; and acquisition processing of acquiring an observation image by the charged particle emitted from a cross-section of the sample formed by the slice processing, wherein the control portion is configured to divide the observation image into a plurality of areas, and wherein the control portion is configured to finish the process when a change has occurred between an image in one area of a plurality of areas of a first observation image of one cross-section of the sample acquired by one processing and observation process and an image in an area, which corresponds to the one area, of a plurality of areas of a second observation image of another cross-section of the sample acquired by another processing and observation process.