Helium ion microscopy (HIM), enabled by a gas field ion source (GFIS), is an emerging imaging and nanofabrication technique compatible with many applications in materials science. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has become ubiquitous in materials science for high-resolution imaging of materials. However, due to the fundamental limitation in focusing of electron beams, ion-beam microscopy is now being developed (e.g., at 20 kV the SEM beam diameter ranges from 0.5 to 1 nm, whereas the HIM offers 0.35 nm). The key technological advantage of the HIM is in its multipurpose design that excels in a variety of disciplines. The HIM offers higher resolution than the best available SEMs as well as the traditional gallium liquid-metal ion source (LMISs) focused ion beams (FIBs), and is capable of imaging untreated biological or other insulating samples with unprecedented resolution, depth of field, materials contrast, and image quality. GFIS FIBs also offer a direct path to defect engineering via ion implantation, three-dimensional direct write using gaseous and liquid precursors, and chemical-imaging options with secondary ion mass spectrometry. HIM covers a wide range of tasks that otherwise would require multiple tools or specialized sample preparation. In this article, we describe the underlying technology, present materials, relevant applications, and offer an outlook for the potential of FIB technology in processing materials.

The refractory nature of BaTiO3 leads to limited densification and grain growth for films processed at low temperatures and a modest nonlinear dielectric response due to a marked sensitivity to physical scale and material quality. Adding liquid-forming sintering aids, common in bulk ceramics, to thin films enhances mass transport, leading to enhanced grain growth at lower temperatures. This work explores the effectiveness of a sputtered CuO buffer layer with BaO–B2O3 (BBO) fluxes to engineer the microstructure of BaTiO3 films. Grain size and homogeneity increase in the presence of even a ∼1 nm CuO layer. In general, grain size increases from 75 to 370 nm with an addition of 2.2% BBO and 8 nm CuO. Room temperature capacitance in fluxed films increases by a factor of 5 over pure films, and ferroelectric phase transitions are clearly observable in dielectric measurements. CuO–BBO proves effective on (0001) Al2O3 and (100) MgO substrates, although all microstructures are notably finer for the latter.

A low-temperature thin-film processing method for BaTiO3 is studied to understand microstructure development in the presence of a liquid-forming phase. The addition of a eutectic barium borate flux is found to prevent nucleation of BaTiO3 during pulsed-laser deposition on sapphire substrates at 400 °C. Subsequent thermal annealing above the flux's eutectic temperature dramatically enhances the film's microstructural development and crystallinity. A secondary reaction phase of barium aluminate is identified at the substrate interface in both unfluxed and fluxed films, although it is more pronounced in the fluxed films. This barium aluminate phase in conjunction with the liquid flux serves to nucleate {111} twins in the barium titanate, which subsequently lead to enhanced grain growth. The resulting large-grained and dense thin films result in markedly improved dielectric properties.