Alternative FIB Applications using Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Sources


Alternative FIB Applications using Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Sources

Bischoff, L.; Mazarov, P.; Bruchhaus, L.; Gierak, J.

At this time Focused Ion Beam (FIB) technology is dominated by gallium Liquid Metal Ion Sources (LMIS). But, despite new developments like He/Ne ion microscopes or Xe-FIBs many applications in the µm- or nm range could benefit from ion species other than gallium or noble gases: local ion implantation, ion beam mixing, ion beam synthesis or even Focused Ion Beam Lithography. For this special use cases Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Sources (LMAIS) represent a promising alternative to expand the remarkable application fields for FIB [1]. Switching between the certain species obtained from a chosen alloy using an ExB mass filter in the ion optical column can be applied to change significantly different physical and chemical characteristics of the resulting nanostructures. In other words the electrical, optical, magnetic and/or mechanic properties can be tuned. This offers a large application potential by choosing a well suited LMAIS. Now nearly half of the elements of the Periodic Table are available in FIB technology.
Main properties of a modern LMAIS should be long life-time, high brightness and stable ion current emission. This contribution will involve the physical basics and experimental results of LMAIS, their physical properties and questions of the preparation technology for elementary as well as binary and ternary alloys as source material. Furthermore selected applications of these sources in highly focused beams are given feasible for nano patterning issues as an alternative technology more in research than in industry.

[1] L. Bischoff, P. Mazarov, L. Bruchhaus, and J. Gierak, Liquid metal alloy ion sources—An alternative for focused ion beam, Appl. Phys. Rev. 3 (2016) 021101.

Keywords: Focused Ion Beam; Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Sources; Nanotechnology

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