Sculpting with Ions 1.0.0

Live exhibit: https://advanced-em.github.io/FIB-view/

The first release of Sculpting with Ions, the dual-beam sister exhibit of Seeing with Electrons: a focused ion beam / scanning electron microscope in the browser, where every image, trench and deposit is computed from the physics.

The instrument

• Ion beams: gallium from a liquid-metal source (2.5 nm probes) and xenon, argon, nitrogen and oxygen from a plasma source (up to 2.5 µA). Probe size, sputter yields, ranges and damage follow measured values and a binary-collision Monte Carlo (Ga 30 keV in Si: range ~27 nm, yield ~2).
• Twelve modes: SE, in-lens, BSE, EBSD, TKD and EDS with the electron beam; ion imaging, milling and gas-assisted deposition with the ion beam; slice & view; an eight-step TEM lamella lift-out; and Monte Carlo of electrons or ions.
• Both beams see the milled surface: the 52° SEM view looks into a trench and sees the cross-section face (Pt cap, oxide, copper wiring, tungsten vias, silicon), while ion imaging shows channelling contrast and erodes what it looks at.
• Experiments: cross-section a chip, gallium vs xenon vs oxygen on a battery cathode, channelling contrast, charging, nanograins (EBSD vs TKD), and a fly-through.

Training, AI and scripting

• Training tasks with a hidden answer: focus and stigmate the SEM; focus the ion beam without destroying the specimen; find the eucentric height; thin a lamella to 100 nm. With consent, sessions are recorded anonymously and can be shared with the research dataset on Hugging Face.
• AI mode: a command bar and push-to-talk voice ("switch to xenon", "mill a cross-section", "thin to 100 nm", "what is the sputter yield?"), and analyses checked against the simulator's truth.
• Agents: tools/fibview-mcp lets an AI agent run the twin headlessly or drive an open exhibit.
• Python: the fibview package and an in-browser IDE (Pyodide).
• Console: drive it with the TEM-view Console, any game controller, or the on-screen panel (V).

Guides

• SOP-01 · TEM lamella lift-out (11 pages)
• SOP-02 · Python scripting (8 pages)

Simulation only: nothing here controls a real instrument. All rights reserved while the licenses are decided (see LICENSE).