prescribed pattern provided by pattern generator 138 is coupled to deflection plates 120 whereby ion beam 118 may be controlled manually or automatically to trace out a corresponding pattern on the upper surface of substrate 122 in some systems the deflection plates are placed before the final lens as is well known in the art beam blanking electrodes not shown within ion beam focusing column 116 cause ion beam 118 to impact onto blanking aperture not shown instead of substrate 122 when a blanking controller not shown applies a blanking voltage to the blanking electrode the liquid metal ion source 114 typically provides a metal ion beam of gallium the source typically is capable of being focused into a sub one tenth micrometer wide beam at substrate 122 for either modifying the substrate 122 by ion milling enhanced etch material deposition or for the purpose of imaging the substrate 122 a charged particle detector 140 such as an everhart thornley or multi channel plate used for detecting secondary ion or electron emission is connected to a video circuit 142 that supplies drive signals to video monitor 144 and receiving deflection signals from a system controller 119 the location of charged particle detector 140 within lower chamber 126 can vary in different embodiments for example a charged particle detector 140 can be coaxial with the ion beam and include a hole for allowing the ion beam to pass in other embodiments secondary particles can be collected through a final lens and then diverted off axis for collection a micromanipulator 247 such as the autoprobe 200 u2122 from omniprobe inc dallas tex or the model mm3a from kleindiek nanotechnik reutlingen germany can precisely move objects within the vacuum chamber.