Ion Sources for Focused Ion Beam Applications

One of the most important elements of a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) system is the ion source which has to guarantee a stable, long life working in the needed application field with the required properties. Main points are the achievable focus of the spot, the ion current, the energy and also the ion species itself. At present nearly half of elements of the periodic table can be used in FIB equipment to modify or tune locally electrical, optical, mechanic or magnetic properties. Depending on the special task very different types of ion sources can be found. Among them the Liquid Metal Ion Sources (LMIS) mostly used for Ga and derived from that the Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Sources (LMAIS) [1] are most popular ones having a brightness of 106 A/cm² sr. The obtainable resolution is a few nm with ion currents of some pA. In a similar manner Ionic Liquid Ion Sources (ILIS) work using salts or certain compounds from which positive and negative mono- and polyatomic ions can be emitted [1,2]. Due to the limited ion current in such sources to lower than 100 nA and so applications like larger volume removing are restricted. ECR or RF plasma sources can fill the gap working with heavy Xe ions and currents up to 2 µA [3,4]. In the last decade a long known source was rediscovered – the Gas Field Ion Source (GFIS) and generate the initial point for the successful development of the Helium Ion Microscope (HIM) [5]. A final lateral spot size of about half nm opens new prospects in the field of ion microscopy and nano-engineering. Another modern and interesting approach is the magneto-optical trap ion source (MOTIS) successful demonstrated for Cr and Li ions [6].
All ion sources used in FIB systems will be compared, characterized, discussed and described with a typical application.

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[3] A. Delobbe, O. Salord, T. Hrncir, A. David, P. Sudraud and F. Lopour, High Speed TEM Sample Preparation by Xe FIB, Microsc. Microanal. 20 (2014) 298.
[4] T.L. Burnetta, R. Kelley, B. Winiarski, L. Contreras, M. Daly, A. Gholinia, M.G. Burke, and P.J. Withers, Large volume serial section tomography by Xe Plasma FIB dual beam Microscopy, Ultramicroscopy 161 (2016) 119.
[5] G. Hlawacek, V. Veligura, R. van Gastel, and B. Poelsema, Helium ion microscopy, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 32 (2014) 020801.
[6] B. Knuffman, A. V. Steele, J. Orloff, M. Maazouz, and J. J. McClelland, A Focused Ion Beam Source Based On Laser-Cooled Atoms, AIP Conference Proceedings 1395 (2011) 85.