Fig. 3.

Modern SBF SEM system. (A) Gatan 3View® 2XP system fitted in an FEI Quanta 250 field emission gun SEM. The original door supplied with the microscope is replaced by the 3View® system. (B) Loading the block into the 3View® system on the opened microscope door. (C) Detail of sample block mounted on a pin (arrow right) and diamond knife (arrow left) in situ. The double-headed arrow shows the travel directions of the knife and the chevron the vertical movement of the block. During operation the diamond knife moves laterally over the sample block (double-headed arrow), which travels upwards for a pre-determined increment (chevron), allowing the removal of a section when the knife returns to its original (‘clear’) position on the left. The block face is imaged while the knife is in this position.