Liquid Metal Ion Source Working with an Er₇₀Fe₂₂Cr₃Ni₅ Alloy

For focused ion beam applications of Erbium as well as of several metal ions which are of interest for optical and semiconductor investigations a liquid metal ion source operating with an Er-stainless steel alloy was developed and investigated. This alloy consists of a mixture of Er70Fe22Cr5Ni3 and has a melting point of about 860°C. The wetted needle type tungsten emitter showed a stable emission behaviour down to 1µA emission current. The I-V characteristics, the temperature dependence of the extraction voltage, the mass spectrum, and the energy spread of the main beam components depending on the emission current were investigated. While in the case of singly charged metal ions the beam is not defined due to isotope interference in the case of doubly charged ions the species well separated for focused ion beam applications are available.