The temperature dependence of energy spread and mass spectra of an Au73Ge27 alloy liquid metal ion source

Focused ion beam applications using ions other than Gallium are of increasing interest during the previous years. A promising candidate is Germanium due to its compatibility to the semiconductor technology, i.e. for local doping of SixGe1-x structures. The energy spread ΔE½ of the source, which, through the chromatic aberrations of the system, determines the final spot size at the target and the peak energy deficit (PED) as well as the mass spectra emitted from an eutectic Au73Ge27 (m.p.=366°C) alloy liquid metal ion source were investigated as a function of the emitter temperature. ΔE½, measured with a retarding field analyser, is expressed as the full width of the distribution at half its maximum height (FWHM). Doubly-charged ions achieve double of energy, compared to singly-charged ions, which is taken into account for analysis. Furthermore, Ge shows a much more abundant in the doubly-charged state, following Brandon`s criterion. Due to the analysis of PED we think Ge++ as well as Au+ and Ge+ are directly field-evaporated in the doubly- and singly-charged state, respectively. Au++ should be post-ionized from the singly-charged state.
Due to the regular expected behaviour of the surface tension dependence on temperature shows in contrast to Si containing metallic glass alloys, like AuSi or AuGeSi, that the ion emission is enhanced with increasing temperature, obtained from a field of I-V-characteristics. The slope of this change also depends on the volume of the source reservoir, which is demonstrated for a drop volume of 0.5 and 3.4 mm3, respectively, in the temperature range from 400 to 1000 °C. The mass spectra, measured with an E x B analyser are evaluated with respect to the emission intensity for the main ion species Au+ and Au++, Ge+ and Ge++ and for various molecular ions and clusters, formed by droplet disintegration. The ratio of doubly-charged to singly-charged monomer species is given as a function of temperature in the emission current range of 1 to 30 µA.