Patent ID: 8835847

Claim:
A sample holding apparatus capable of mounting to both a focused ion beam device and a transmission electron microscope apparatus, comprising: a sample holding assembly including an assembly of three components of an upper diaphragm holding part, a sample holding plate and a lower diaphragm holding part; and a holding part that holds the sample holding assembly replaceably, wherein: the sample holding assembly includes a cell defined between a diaphragm of the upper diaphragm holding part and a diaphragm of the lower diaphragm holding part, and a flow channel connected to the cell, the sample holding plate is provided with a thin plate-like protrusion at its one end, a lower face of the protrusion extends along a lower face of the sample holding plate, an upper face of the protrusion has a step from an upper face of the sample holding plate, the sample holding assembly is configured such that when an extracted sample, which is extracted from a base material by focused ion beam processing, is mounted in an erect state at an end face of the protrusion, the extracted sample is placed in the cell, and the sample holding apparatus is configured such that, when the sample holding assembly is placed in the holding part, the diaphragm of the upper diaphragm holding part, the extracted sample and the diaphragm of the lower diaphragm holding part are disposed along an optical axis of an electron beam.