Without the need for external specimen preparation, this FIB cross-section reveals the state of a stainless steel after testing for several hours in a corrosive environment at 600°C. In this alloy, the corrosion products form only near to where iron grain boundaries intersect the surface of the specimen.

FIB sectioning and imaging allow relatively rapid analysis of site-specific structures. The "theater curtain" effect of vertical lines visible in the steel substrate can be avoided at the cost of additional sample preparation time. The sample was further thinned to produce a TEM sample from the area previously imaged in the FIB, which was characterized extensively.