Patent ID: 8455840

Claim:
A method of operating a gas field ion microscope system comprising a gas field ion source, the gas field ion source comprising a tip including a plurality of atoms, the method comprising: operating the gas field ion microscope system in a first mode including interacting a first ion beam with a sample, at least about 80% of the ions in the first ion beam being generated by a first number of atoms of the plurality of atoms of the tip; and operating the gas field ion microscope system in a second mode including interacting a second ion beam with the sample, at least about 80% of the ions in the second ion beam being generated by a second number of atoms of the plurality of atoms of the tip, wherein: the first mode is different from the second mode, and the first number of atoms is different from the second number of atoms, and the sample is not removed from the gas field ion microscope system between the first and second modes of operation.