Boron Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Sources for Special FIB Applications

Focused Ion Beam (FIB) processing has been established as a well-suited and promising technique in R&D in nearly all fields of nanotechnology for patterning and prototyping on the µm-scale and below. Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Sources (LMAIS) represent an alternative to expand the FIB application fields beside all other source concepts. The need of light elements like B was investigated using various alloys. A promising solution was found in a Co31Nd64B5 based LMAIS which should be introduced in more detail. Beside Co ions as a ferromagnetic element and the rare earth element Nd especially B is interesting for special FIB applications with a best obtained resolution of about 30 nm so far.